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THE   STORY   OF    WELLESLEY 


;  B!»iMl!ii  1   if 


Tlic    ('liaprl    Doorwav 


THE  STORY  OF 
WELLESLEY 


BY 


FLORENCE   CONVERSE 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS    BY 

NORMAN  IRVING  BLACK 


IN6M-REFERT1 


poWVAO-q3S, 


BOSTON 
LITTLE,   BROWN,  AND    COMPANY 

1915 


Copyright,  1915, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


All  rights  reserved 
Published,  October,  1915 


Printers 

s.  J.  I'arkhill  &  Co.,  Boston,  C.S.A. 


ALMA    MATER 

To  Alma  Mater,  Wellesley's  daughters, 

All  together  join  and  sing, 
Thro'  all  her  wealth  of  woods  and  waters 

Let  your  happy  voices  ring  ; 
In  everv  changing  mood  we  love  her, 

Love  her  towers  and  woods  and  lake  ; 
Oh,  changeful  sky,  bend  blue  above  her, 

Wake,  ye  birds,  your  chorus  wake  ! 

We'll  sing  her  praises  now  and  ever, 

Blessed  fount  of  truth  and  love. 
Our  heart's  devotion,  may  it  never 

Faithless  or  unworthy  prove. 
We'll  give  our  lives  and  hopes  to  serve  her, 

Humblest,  highest,  noblest  —  all  ; 
A  stainless  name  we  will  preserve  her, 

Answer  to  her  every  call. 

Anne  L.    Barrett,    '86. 


PREFACE 

THE  day  after  the  Wellesley  fire,  an  eager  young 
reporter  on  a  Boston  paper  came  out  to  the 
college  by  appointment  to  interview  a  group  of 
Wellesley  women,  alumnae  and  teachers,  grief- 
stricken  by  the  catastrophe  which  had  befallen  them. 
He  came  impetuously,  with  that  light-hearted 
breathlessness  so  characteristic  of  young  reporters 
in  the  plays  of  Bernard  Shaw  and  Arnold  Bennett. 
He  was  charmingly  in  character,  and  he  sent  his 
voice  out  on  the  run  to  meet  the  smallest  alumna 
in  the  group  : 

"Xow  tell  me  some  pranks  !"  he  cried,  with  pencil 
poised. 

What  she  did  tell  him  need  not  be  recorded  here. 
Neither  was  it  set  down  in  the  courteous  and  sym- 
pathetic report  which  he  afterwards  wrote  for  his 
paper. 

And  readers  who  come  to  this  story  of  Welles- 
ley for  pranks  will  be  disappointed  likewise.     Xot 

vii 


PREFACE 

that  the  lighter  side  of  the  Wellesley  life  is  omitted ; 
play-days  and  pageants,  all  the  bright  revelry  of  the 
college  year,  belong  to  the  story.  Wellesley  would 
not  be  Wellesley  if  they  were  left  out.  But  her 
alumnae,  her  faculty,  and  her  undergraduates  all 
agree  that  the  college  was  not  founded  primarily  for 
the  sake  of  Tree  Day,  and  that  the  Senior  Play  is 
not  the  goal  of  the  year's  endeavor. 

It  is  the  story  of  the  Wellesley  her  daughters  and 
lovers  know  that  I  have  tried  to  tell :  the  Wellesley 
of  serious  purpose,  consecrated  to  noble  ideals  of 
Christian  Scholarship. 

I  am  indebted  for  criticism,  to  President  Pendleton 
who  kindly  read  certain  parts  of  the  manuscript, 
to  Professor  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  Professor  Vida 
D.  Scudder,  and  Mrs.  Marian  Pelton  Guild ;  for 
historical  material,  to  Miss  Charlotte  Howard  Co- 
nant's  "Address  Delivered  in  Memory  of  Henry 
Fowle  Durant  in  Wellesley  College  Chapel",  Feb- 
ruary 1 8,  1906,  to  Mrs.  Louise  McCoy  North's 
Historical  Address,  delivered  at  Wellesley's  quarter 
centennial,  in  June,  1900,  to  Professor  George  Her- 
bert Palmer's  Life  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer,  pub- 
lished by  the  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  to  Professor 
Margarethe  Miiller's  Carla  Wenckebach,  Pioneer, 
published  by  Ginn  &  Co.  ;  to  Dean  Waitc,  Miss  Edith 
Souther   Tufts,    Professor     Sarah    F.   Whiting,  Miss 

viii 


PREFACE 

Louise  Manning  Hodgkins,  Professor  Emeritus  Mary 
A.  Willcox,  Mrs.  Mary  Gilman  Ahlers ;  to  Miss  Can- 
dace  C.  Stimson,  Miss  Mary  B.  Jenkins,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Alumnae  Restoration  and  Endowment 
Committee,  and  to  the  many  others  among  alumnae 
and  faculty,  whose  letters  and  articles  I  quote. 
Last  but  not  least  in  my  grateful  memory  are  all 
those  painstaking  and  accurate  chroniclers,  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Wellesley  Courant,  Prelude,  Magazine, 
News,  and  Legenda,  whose    labors   went    so    far    to 

lighten  mine. 

F.  C. 


IX 


CONTENTS 


Preface     ...... 

I.  The   Founder  and   his   Ideals 

II.  The   Presidents   and  their   Achievement 

III.  The   Faculty  and  their    Methods 

IV.  The   Students   at   Work   and    Play 
V.  The   Fire  :    an   Interlude  . 

VI.  The   Loyal   Alumn/e 

Index         ...... 


PAGE 

vii 
I 

5° 

I  2  I 

168 

222 

237 

277 


XI 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


College  Hall  from  Roof  of  Norumb 

East  Lodge 

Outlet,  Lake  Waban 

ega  C 

jttage 

FAC 

ujyic  it 
ISG    PAGE 

7 

32 
40 

Stone  Hall 

55 

In  the  Old  College  Hall  Library 

69 

Farnsworth  Art  Building 

80 

The  Whitin  Observatory 

•°3 

The  Music  Hall 

l37 

The  New  Library 

164 

The  Chapel 
Wilder  Hall 

172 
184 

Shakespeare          .... 
Lake  Waban  Boat  House 

209 
217 

East  Door  and  Long  Corridor  after  Fire 

227 

College  Hall  from  Lake  Waban 

2  59 

Xlll 


The   Story  of  Wellesley 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    FOUNDER    AND    HIS    IDEALS 

I 

AS  the  nineteenth  century  recedes  into  history 
and  the  essentially  romantic  quality  of  its 
great  adventures  is  confirmed  by  the  "beauty 
touched  with  strangeness"  which  illumines  their 
true  perspective,  we  are  discovering,  what  the  ad- 
venturers themselves  always  knew,  that  the  move- 
ment for  the  higher  education  of  women  was  not  the 
least  romantic  of  those  Victorian  quests  and  stirrings, 
and  that  its  relation  to  the  greatest  adventure  of  all, 
Democracy,  was  peculiarly  vital  and  close. 

We  know  that  the  "man  in  the  street",  in  the 
sixties  and  seventies,  watching  with  perplexity  and 
scornful  amusement  the  endeavor  of  his  sisters  and 
his  daughters  —  or  more  probably  other  men's 
daughters  —  to  prove  that  the  intellectual  heritage 

1 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

must  be  a  common  heritage  if  Democracy  was  to  be 
a  working  theory,  missed  the  beauty  of  the  picture. 
He  saw  the  slim  beginning  of  a  procession  of  young 
women,  whose  obstinate,  dreaming  eyes  beheld 
the  visions  hitherto  relegated  by  scriptural  prerog- 
ative and  masculine  commentary  to  their  brothers  ; 
inevitably  his  outraged  conservatism  missed  the 
beauty;  and  the  strangeness  he  called  queer. 
That  he  should  have  missed  the  democratic  sig- 
nificance of  the  movement  is  less  to  his  credit.  But 
he  did  miss  it,  fifty  years  ago  and  for  several  years 
thereafter,  even  as  he  is  still  missing  the  democratic 
significance  of  other  movements  to-day.  Processions 
still  pass  him  by,  —  for  peace,  for  universal  suf- 
frage, May  Day,  Labor  Day,  and  those  black  days 
when  the  nations  mobilize  for  war,  they  pass  him 
by,  —  and  the  last  thing  he  seems  to  discover  about 
them  is  their  democratic  significance.  But  after  a 
long  while  the  meaning  of  it  all  has  begun  to  pene- 
trate. To-day,  his  daughters  go  to  college  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  he  has  forgotten  that  he  ever 
grudged  them  the  opportunity. 

They  remind  him  of  it,  sometimes,  with  filial 
indirection,  by  celebrating  the  benevolence,  the 
intellectual  acumen,  the  idealism  of  the  few  men, 
exceptional  in  their  day,  who  saw  eye  to  eye  with 
Mary  Lyon  and  her  kind  ;    the  men  who  welcomed 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

women  to  Obcrlin  and  Michigan,  who  founded 
Vassar  and  Wellesley  and  Bryn  Mawr,  and  so 
helped  to  organize  the  procession.  Their  reminders 
are  even  beginning  to  take  form  as  records  of  achieve- 
ment;  annals  very  far  from  meager,  for  achieve- 
ment piles  up  faster  since  Democracy  set  the  gate  of 
opportunity  on  the  crack,  and  we  pack  more  into 
a  half  century  than  we  used  to.  And  women, 
more  obviously  than  men,  perhaps,  have  "speeded 
up"  in  response  to  the  democratic  stimulus;  their 
accomplishment  along  social,  political,  industrial, 
and,  above  all,  educational  lines,  since  the  first 
woman's  college  was  founded,  is  not  inconsiderable. 
How  much,  or  how  little,  would  have  been  accom- 
plished, industrially,  socially,  and  politically,  with- 
out that  first  woman's  college,  we  shall  never  know, 
but  the  alumna?  registers,  with  their  statistics  con- 
cerning the  occupations  of  graduates,  are  suggestive 
reading.  How  little  would  have  been  accomplished 
educationally  for  women,  it  is  not  so  difficult  to 
imagine :  Yassar,  Wellesley,  Smith,  Mt.  Holyoke, 
Bryn  Mawr,  —  with  all  the  bright  visions,  the  full- 
ness of  life  that  they  connote  to  American  women, 
middle-aged  and  young,  —  blotted  out;  coeduca- 
tional institutions  harassed  by  numbers  and  invent- 
ing drastic  legislation  to  keep  out  the  women;  man 
still  the  almoner  of  education,  and  woman  his  depend- 

3 


THE   STORY  OF    WELLESLEY 

ent.  From  all  these  hampering  probabilities  the 
women's  colleges  save  us  to-day.  This  is  what 
constitutes  their  negative  value  to  education. 

Their  positive  contribution  cannot  be  summarized 
so  briefly ;  its  scattered  chronicle  must  be  sought 
in  the  minutes  of  trustees'  meetings,  where  it  mod- 
estly evades  the  public  eye,  in  the  academic  formali- 
ties of  presidents'  reports  and  the  journalistic 
naivete  of  college  periodicals  ;  in  the  diaries  of  early 
graduates ;  in  newspaper  clippings  and  magazine 
"write-ups"  ;  in  historical  sketches  to  commemorate 
the  decennial  or  the  quarter-century ;  and  from  the 
lips  of  the  pioneers,  —  teacher  and  student.  For, 
in  the  words  of  the  graduate  thesis,  "we  are  still  in 
the  period  of  the  sources."  The  would-be  historian 
of  a  woman's  college  to-day  is  in  much  the  same  rela- 
tion to  her  material  as  the  Venerable  Bede  was  to  his 
when  he  set  out  to  write  his  Ecclesiastical  History. 
The  thought  brings  us  its  own  inspiration.  If  we 
sift  our  miracles  with  as  much  discrimination  as  he 
sifted  his,  we  shall  be  doing  well.  We  shall  discover, 
among  other  things,  that  in  addition  to  the  composite 
influence  which  these  colleges  all  together  exert, 
each  one  also  brings  to  bear  upon  our  educational 
problems  her  individual  experience  and  ideals. 
Wellesley,  for  example,  with  her  women-presidents, 
and   the   heads  of  her  departments   all  women   but 

4 


THE   FOUNDER  AND  HIS  IDEALS 

three,  —  the  professors  of  Music,  Education,  and 
French,  —  has  her  peculiar  testimony  to  offer  con- 
cerning the  administrative  and  executive  powers  of 
women  as  educators,  their  capacity  for  initiative  and 
organization. 

This  is  why  a  general  history  of  the  movement  for 
the  higher  education  of  women,  although  of  value, 
cannot  tell  us  all  we  need  to  know,  since  of  necessity 
it  approaches  the  subject  from  the  outside.  The 
women's  colleges  must  speak  as  individuals ;  each 
one  must  tell  her  own  story,  and  tell  it  soon.  The 
bright,  experimental  days  are  definitely  past  — 
except  in  the  sense  in  which  all  education,  alike  for 
men  and  women,  is  perennially  an  experiment  —  and 
if  the  romance  of  those  days  is  to  quicken  the  imagina- 
tions of  college  girls  one  hundred,  two  hundred,  five 
hundred  years  hence,  the  women  who  were  the 
experiment  and  who  lived  the  romance  must  write 
it  down. 

For  Wellesley  in  particular  this  consciousness  of 
standing  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  epoch  is  especially 
poignant.  Inevitably  those  forty  years  before  the 
fire  of  191 4  will  go  down  in  her  history  as  a  period 
apart.  Already  for  her  freshmen  the  old  college 
hall  is  a  mythical  labyrinth  of  memory  and  custom 
to  which  they  have  no  clue.  Xew  happiness  will 
come   to   the   hill   above   the   lake,   new   beauty  will 

5 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

crown  it,  new  memories  will  hallow  it,  but  —  they 
will  all  be  new.  And  if  the  coming  generations  of 
students  are  to  realize  that  the  new  Wellesley  is 
what  she  is  because  her  ideals,  though  purged  as  by 
fire,  are  still  the  old  ideals  ;  if  they  are  to  understand 
the  continuity  of  Wellesley's  tradition,  we  who  have 
come  through  the  fire  must  tell  them  the  story. 

II 

On  Wednesday,  November  25,  1914,  the  workmen 
who  were  digging  among  the  fire-scarred  ruins  at 
the  extreme  northeast  corner  of  old  College  Hall 
unearthed  a  buried  treasure.  To  the  ordinary 
treasure  seeker  it  would  have  been  a  thing  of  little 
worth,  —  a  rough  bowlder  of  irregular  shape  and 
commonplace  proportions,  —  but  Wellesley  eyes  saw 
the  symbol.  It  was  the  first  stone  laid  in  the  founda- 
tions of  Wellesley  College.  There  was  no  ceremony 
when  it  was  laid,  and  there  were  no  guests.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Henry  Fowle  Durant  came  up  the  hill  on  a 
summer  morning  —  Friday,  August  18,  1871,  was 
the  da}'  —  and  with  the  help  of  the  workmen  set  the 
stone  in  place. 

A  month  later,  on  the  afternoon  of  Thursday, 
September  14,  1 87 1 ,  the  corner  stone  was  laid,  by 
Mrs.  Durant,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  building, 
under  the  dining-room  wing;    it  is  significant  that 

6 


/ 


*3P<. 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS   IDEALS 

from  the  foundations  up  through  the  growth  and 
expansion  of  all  the  years,  women  have  had  a  hand 
in  the  making  of  Wellesley.  In  September,  as  in 
August,  there  were  no  guests  invited,  but  at  the 
laying  of  the  corner  stone  there  was  a  simple  cere- 
mony ;  each  workman  was  given  a  Bible,  by  Mr. 
Durant,  and  a  Bible  was  placed  in  the  corner  stone. 
On  December  18,  1914,  this  stone  was  uncovered, 
and  the  Bible  was  found  in  a  tin  box  in  a  hollow  of 
the  stone.  As  most  of  the  members  of  the  college 
had  scattered  for  the  Christmas  vacation,  only  a 
little  group  of  people  gathered  about  the  place 
where,  forty-three  years  before,  Mrs.  Durant  had 
laid  the  stone.  Mrs.  Durant  was  too  ill  to  be  present, 
but  her  cousin,  Miss  Fannie  Massie,  lifted  the  tin 
box  out  of  its  hollow  and  handed  it  to  President 
Pendleton  who  opened  the  Bible  and  read  aloud  the 
inscription  : 

"This  building  is  humbly  dedicated  to  our  Heav- 
enly Father  with  the  hope  and  prayer  that  He  may 
always  be  first  in  everything  in  this  institution;  that 
His  word  may  be  faithfully  taught  here ;  and  that 
He  will  use  it  as  a  means  of  leading  precious  souls 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

There  followed,  also  in  Mrs.  Durant's  handwriting, 
two   passages    from    the    Scriptures  :     II    Chronicles, 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

29  :  11-16,  and  the  phrase  from  the  one  hundred 
twenty-seventh  Psalm  :  "Except  the  Lord  build  the 
house  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it." 

This  stone  is  now  the  corner  stone  of  the  new 
building  which  rises  on  College  Hill,  and  another, 
the  keystone  of  the  arch  above  the  north  door  of  old 
College  Hall,  will  be  set  above  the  doorway  of  the 
new  administration  building,  where  its  deep-graven 
I.H.S.  will  daily  remind  those  who  pass  beneath 
it  of  Wellesley's  unbroken  tradition  of  Christian 
scholarship    and    service. 

But  we  must  go  back  to  the  days  before  one  stone 
was  laid  upon  another,  if  we  are  to  begin  at  the 
beginning  of  Wellesley's  story.  It  was  in  1855, 
the  year  after  his  marriage,  that  Mr.  Durant  bought 
land  in  Wellesley  village,  then  a  part  of  Xeedham, 
and  planned  to  make  the  place  his  summer  home. 
Every  one  who  knew  him  speaks  of  his  passion  for 
beauty,  and  he  gave  that  passion  free  play  when  he 
chose,  all  unwittingly,  the  future  site  for  his  college. 
There  is  no  fairer  region  around  Boston  than  this 
wooded,  hilly  country  near  Xatick — "the  place  of 
hills"  —  with  its  little  lakes,  its  tranquil,  winding 
river,  its  hallowed  memories  of  John  Eliot  and  his 
Christian  Indian  chieftains,  Waban  and  Pegan,  its 
treasured  literary  associations  with  Harriet  Beecher 

8 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS   IDEALS 

Stowe.  Chief  Waban  gave  his  name,  "Wind"  or 
"Breath",  to  the  college  lake;  on  Pegan  Hill,  from 
which  so  many  Wellesley  girls  have  looked  out  over 
the  blue  distances  of  Massachusetts,  Chief  Pegan's 
efficient  and  time-saving  squaw  used  to  knit  his' 
stockings  without  heels,  because  "He  handsome 
foot,  and  he  shapes  it  hisself";  and  Xatick  is  the 
Old  Town  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  "Old  Town  Folks." 

In  those  first  years  after  they  began  to  spend 
their  summers  at  Wellesley,  the  family  lived  in  a 
brown  house  near  what  is  now  the  college  greenhouse, 
but  Mr.  Durant  meant  to  build  his  new  house  on  the 
hill  above  the  lake,  or  on  the  site  of  Stone  Hall,  and 
to  found  a  great  estate  for  his  little  son.  From 
time  to  time  he  bought  more  land ;  he  laid  out 
avenues  and  planted  them  with  trees ;  and  then, 
the  little  boy  for  whom  all  this  joy  and  beauty  were 
destined  fell  ill  of  diphtheria  and  died,  July  3,  1863, 
after  a  short  illness. 

The  effect  upon  the  grief-stricken  father  was 
startling,  and  to  many  who  knew  him  and  more  who 
did  not,  it  was  incomprehensible.  In  the  quaint 
phraseology  of  one  of  his  contemporaries,  he  had 
"avoided  the  snares  of  infidelity"  hitherto,  but  his 
religion  had  been  of  a  conventional  type.  During  the 
child's  illness  he  underwent  an  old-fashioned  religious 
conversion.     The   miracle   has   happened   before,   to 

9 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

greater  men,  and  the  world  has  always  looked  askance. 
Boston  in  1863,  and  later,  was  no  exception. 

Mr.  Durant's  career  as  a  lawyer  had  been  brilliant 
and  worldly  ;  he  had  rarely  lost  a  case.  In  an  article 
on  "Anglo-American  Memories",  which  appeared 
in  the  New  York  Tribune  in  1909,  he  is  described  as 
having  "a  powerful  head,  chiseled  features,  black 
hair,  which  he  wore  rather  long,  an  olive  complexion, 
and  eyes  which  flashed  the  lightnings  of  wrath  and 
scorn  and  irony ;  then  suddenly  the  soft  rays  of 
sweetness  and  persuasion  for  the  jury.  He  could 
coax,  intimidate,  terrify ;  and  his  questions  cut  like 
knives."  The  author  of  "Bench  and  Bar  in 
Massachusetts",  who  was  in  college  with  him,  says 
of  him  :  "During  the  five  years  of  his  practice  at  the 
Middlesex  Bar  he  underwent  such  an  initiation  into 
the  profession  as  no  other  county  could  furnish. 
Shrewdness,  energy,  resource,  strong  nerves  and 
mental  muscles  were  needed  to  ward  off  the  blows 
which  the  trained  gladiators  of  this  bar  were  accus- 
tomed to  inflict.  With  the  lessons  learned  at  the 
Middlesex  Bar  he  removed  to  Boston  in  1847,  where 
he  became  associated  with  the  Honorable  Joseph 
Bell,  the  brother-in-law  of  Rufus  Choate,  and  began 
a  career  almost  phenomenal  in  its  success.  His 
management  of  cases  in  court  was  artistic.  So  well 
taken  were  the  preliminary  steps,  so  deeply  laid  was 

10 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

the  foundation,  so  complete  and  comprehensive  was 
the  preparation  of  evidence  and  so  adroitly  was  it 
brought  out,  so  carefully  studied  and  understood 
were  the  characters  of  jurors,  —  with  their  whims 
and  fancies  and  prejudices,  —  that  he  won  verdict 
after  verdict  in  the  face  of  the  ablest  opponents  and 
placed  himself  by  general  consent  at  the  head  of  the 
jury  lawyers  of  the  Suffolk  Bar."  Adjectives  less 
ambiguous  and  more  uncomplimentary  than 
"shrewd"  were  also  applied  to  him,  and  his  manner 
of  dominating  his  juries  did  not  always  call  forth 
praise  from  his  contemporaries.  In  one  of  the  news- 
paper obituaries  at  the  time  of  his  death  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  he  had  been  "charged  with  resorting  to 
tricks  unbecoming  the  dignity  of  a  lawyer,"  but  the 
writer  adds  that  it  is  an  open  question  if  some,  or 
indeed  all  of  them  were  not  legitimate  enough,  and 
might  not  have  been  paralleled  by  the  practices  of 
some  of  the  ablest  of  British  and  Irish  barristers. 
Both  in  law  and  in  business  —  for  he  had  important 
commercial  interests  —  he  had  prospered.  He  was 
rich  and  a  man  of  the  world.  Boston,  although 
critical,  had  not  found  it  unnatural  that  he  should 
make  himself  talked  about  in  his  conduct  of  jury 
trials ;  but  the  conspicuousness  of  his  conversion 
was  of  another  sort  :  it  offended  against  good  taste, 
and  incurred  for  him  the  suspicion  of  hypocrisy. 

11 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

For,  with  that  ardor  and  impetuosity  which  seem 
always  to  have  made  half  measures  impossible  to 
him,  Mr.  Durant  declared  that  so  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned, the  Law  and  the  Gospel  were  irreconcilable, 
and  gave  up  his  legal  practice.  A  case  which  he 
had  already  undertaken  for  Edward  Everett,  and 
from  which  Mr.  Everett  was  unwilling  to  release 
him,  is  said  to  be  the  last  one  he  conducted  ;  and 
he  pleaded  in  public  for  the  last  time  in  a  hearing  at 
the  State  House  in  Boston,  some  years  later,  when 
he  won  for  the  college  the  right  to  confer  degrees,  a 
privilege  which  had  not  been  specifically  included 
in  the  original  charter. 

His  zeal  in  conducting  religious  meetings  also 
offended  conventional  people.  It  was  unusual,  and 
therefore  unsuitable,  for  a  layman  to  preach  sermons 
in  public.  St.  Francis  and  his  preaching  friars  had 
established  no  precedent  in  Boston  of  the  'sixties 
and  'seventies,  and  indeed  Mr.  Durant's  evangelical 
protestantism  might  not  have  relished  the  parallel. 
Boston  seems,  for  the  most  part,  to  have  averted  its 
eyes  from  the  spectacle  of  the  brilliant,  possibly 
unscrupulous,  some  said  tricky,  lawyer  bringing 
souls  to  Christ.  But  he  did  bring  them.  We  are 
told  that  "The  halls  and  churches  where  he  spoke 
were  crowded.  The  training  and  experience  which 
had  made  him  so  successful  a  pleader  before  judge 

12 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS   IDEALS 

and  jury,  now,  when  he  was  fired  with  zeal  for  Christ's 
cause,  made  him  almost  irresistible  as  a  preacher. 
Very  many  were  led  by  him  to  confess  the  Christian 
faith.  Henry  Wilson,  then  senator,  afterwards 
vice  president,  was  among  them.  The  influence  of 
the  meetings  was  wonderful  and  far-reaching." 
We  are  assured  that  he  "would  go  nowhere  unless 
the  Evangelical  Christians  of  the  place  united  in  an 
invitation  and  the  ministers  were  ready  to  cooper- 
ate." But  the  whole  affair  was  of  course  intensely 
distasteful  to  unemotional  people ;  the  very  fact 
that  a  man  could  be  converted  argued  his  instability ; 
and  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  Boston's  attitude 
toward  Mr.  Durant  was  reflected  for  many  years  in 
her  attitude  toward  the  college  which  he  founded. 
But  over  against  this  picture  we  can  set  another, 
more  intimate,  more  pleasing,  although  possibly  not 
more  discriminating.  When  the  early  graduates  of 
Wellesley  and  the  early  teachers  write  of  Mr.  Durant, 
they  dip  their  pens  in  honey  and  sunshine.  The 
result  is  radiant,  fiery  even,  but  unconvincingly 
archangelic.  We  see  him,  "a  slight,  well-knit  figure 
of  medium  height  in  a  suit  of  gray,  with  a  gray  felt 
hat,  the  brim  slightly  turned  down ;  beneath  one 
could  see  the  beautiful  gray  hair  slightly  curling  at 
the  ends  ;  the  fine,  clear-cut  features,  the  piercing 
dark  eyes,  the  mouth  that  could  smile  or  be  stern  as 

13 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

occasion  might  demand.  He  seemed  to  have  the 
working  power  of  half  a  dozen  ordinary  persons  and 
everything  received  his  attention.  He  took  the 
greatest  pride  and  delight  in  making  things  as  beauti- 
ful as  possible."  Or  he  is  described  as  "A  slight 
man  —  with  eyes  keen  as  a  lawyer's  should  be,  but 
gentle  and  wise  as  a  good  man's  are,  and  with  a 
halo  of  wavy  silver  hair.  His  step  was  alert,  his 
whole  form  illuminate  with  life."  He  is  sketched 
for  us  addressing  the  college,  in  chapel,  one  Septem- 
ber morning  of  1876,  on  the  supremacy  of  Greek 
literature,  "urging  in  conclusion  all  who  would 
venture  upon  Hadley's  Grammar  as  the  first  thorny 
stretch  toward  that  celestial  mountain  peak,  to 
rise."  It  is  Professor  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  writing 
in  1892,  who  gives  us  the  picture  :  "  My  next  neigh- 
bor, a  valorous  little  mortal,  now  a  member  of  the 
Smith  faculty,  was  the  first  upon  her  feet,  pulling 
me  after  her  by  a  tug  at  my  sleeve,  coupled  with  a 
moral  tug  more  efficacious  still.  Perhaps  a  dozen 
of  us  freshmen,  all  told,  filed  into  Professor  Hor- 
ton's  recitation  room  that  morning."  And  again, 
"His  prompt  and  vigorous  method  of  introducing 
a  fresh  subject  to  college  notice  was  the  making  it  a 
required  study  for  the  senior  class  of  the  year. 
'79  grappled  with  biology,  '80  had  a  senior  diet  of 
geology  and  astronomy."     To  these  young  women, 

14 


THE   FOUNDER   AND  HIS   IDEALS 

as  to  his  juries  in  earlier  days,  he  could  use  words 
"that  burned  and  cut  like  the  lash  of  a  scourge," 
and  it  is  evident  that  they  feared  "the  somber 
lightnings  of  his   eyes." 

But  he  won  their  affection  by  his  sympathy  and 
humor  perhaps,  quite  as  much  as  by  his  personal 
beauty,  and  his  ideals  of  scholarship,  and  despite  his 
imperious  desire  to  bring  their  souls  to  Christ.  They 
remember  lovingly  his  little  jokes.  They  tell  of 
how  he  came  into  College  Hall  one  evening,  and  said 
that  a  mother  and  daughter  had  just  arrived,  and 
he  was  perplexed  to  know  where  to  put  them,  but 
he  thought  they  might  stay  under  the  staircase 
leading  up  from  the  center.  And  students  and 
teachers,  puzzled  by  this  inhospitality  but  suspecting 
a  joke  somewhere,  came  out  into  the  center  to  find 
the  great  cast  of  Xiobe  and  her  daughter  under  the 
stairway  at  the  left,  where  it  stayed  through  all 
the  years  that  followed,  until  College  Hall  burned 
down. 

They  tell  also  of  the  moral  he  pointed  at  the  un- 
veiling of  "The  Reading  Girl ",  by  John  Adams 
Jackson,  which  stood  for  many  years  in  the  Browning 
Room.  She  was  reading  no  light  reading,  said  Mr. 
Durant,  as  the  twelve  men  who  brought  her  in  could 
testify.  "She  is  reading  Greek,  and  observe  —  she 
doesn't    wear    bangs."     They    saw    him    ardent    in 

15 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

friendship  as  in  all  else.  His  devoted  friend,  and 
Wellesley's,  Professor  Eben  N.  Horsford,  has  given 
us  a  picture  of  him  which  it  would  be  a  pity  to  miss. 
The  two  men  are  standing  on  the  oak-crowned  hill, 
overlooking  the  lake.  "We  wandered  on,"  says 
Professor  Horsford,  "over  the  hill  and  future  site 
of  Xorumbega,  till  we  came  where  now  stands  the 
monument  to  the  munificence  of  Valeria  Stone. 
There  in  the  shadow  of  the  evergreens  we  lay  down 
on  the  carpet  of  pine  foliage  and  talked,  —  I  remem- 
ber it  well,  —  talked  long  of  the  problems  of  life, 
of  things  worth  living  for ;  of  the  hidden  ways  of 
Providence  as  well  as  of  the  subtle  ways  of  men  ;  of 
the  few  who  rule  and  are  not  always  recognized  ;  of 
the  many  who  are  led  and  are  not  always  conscious 
of  it ;  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  in  the  battle  of 
life,  and  of  the  constant  presence  of  the  Infinite 
Pity ;  of  the  difficulties,  the  resolution,  the  struggle, 
the  conquest  that  make  up  the  history  of  every 
worthy  achievement.  I  arose  with  the  feeling 
that  I  had  been  taken  into  the  confidence  of  one  of 
the  most  gifted  of  all  the  men  it  had  been  my 
privilege  to  know.  We  had  not  talked  of  friendship  ; 
we  had  been  unconsciously  sowing  its  seed.  He 
loved  to  illustrate  its  strength  and  its  steadfastness 
to  me ;  I  have  lived  to  appreciate  and  reverence  the 
grandeur  of  the  work  which  he  accomplished  here." 

16 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS  IDEALS 

III 

If  we  set  them  over  against  each  other,  the  hearsay 
that  besmirches  and  the  reminiscence  that  canonizes, 
we  evoke  a  very  human,  living  personality  :  a  man 
of  keen  intellect,  of  ardent  and  emotional  tempera- 
ment, autocratic,  fanatical,  fastidious,  and  beauty- 
loving;  a  loyal  friend;  an  unpleasant  enemy. 
"He  saw  black  black  and  white  white,  for  him  there 
was  no  gray."  He  was  impatient  of  mediocrity. 
"He  could  not  suffer  fools  gladly." 

Xo  archangel  this,  but  unquestionably  a  man  of 
genius,  consecrated  to  the  fulfillment  of  a  great  vision. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  the  early  graduates  living  in  the 
very  presence  of  his  high  purpose,  his  pure  inten- 
tion, his  spendthrift  selflessness,  remember  these 
things  best  when  they  recall  old  days.  After  all, 
these  are  the  tilings  most  worth  remembering. 

The  best  and  most  carefully  balanced  study  of 
him  which  we  have  is  by  Miss  Charlotte  Howard 
Conant  of  the  class  of  '84,  in  an  address  delivered 
by  her  in  the  College  Chapel,  February  18,  1906, 
to  commemorate  Mr.  Durant's  birthday.  Miss 
Conant's  use  of  the  biographical  material  available, 
and  her  careful  and  restrained  estimate  of  Mr. 
Durant's  character  cannot  be  bettered,  and  it  is  a 
temptation    to   incorporate   her   entire   pamphlet   in 

17 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

this  chapter,  but  we  shall  have  to  content  ourselves 
with  cogent  extracts. 

Henry  Fowle  Durant,  or  Henry  Welles  Smith  as 
he  was  called  in  his  boyhood,  was  born  February  20, 
1822,  in  Hanover,  New  Hampshire.  His  father, 
William  Smith,  "was  a  lawyer  of  limited  means,  but 
versatile  mind  and  genial  disposition."  His  mother, 
Harriet  Fowle  Smith  of  Watertown,  Massachusetts, 
was  one  of  five  sisters  renowned  for  their  beauty  and 
amiability ;  she  was,  we  are  told,  intelligent  as  well 
as  beautiful,  "a  great  reader,  and  a  devoted  Christian 
all  her  long  life." 

Young  Henry  went  to  school  in  Hanover,  and  in 
Peacham,  Vermont,  but  in  his  early  boyhood  the 
family  moved  to  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  and  from 
there  he  was  sent  to  the  private  school  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Samuel  Ripley  in  Waltham,  to  complete  his  prepa- 
ration for  Harvard.  Miss  Conant  writes:  "Mr. 
Ripley  was  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  there 
(in  Waltham)  from  1809  to  1846,  and  during  most 
of  that  time  supplemented  the  small  salary  of  a 
country  minister  by  receiving  twelve  or  fourteen 
boys  into  his  family  to  fit  for  college.  From  time 
to  time  youths  rusticated  from  Harvard  were  also 
sent  there  to  keep  up  college  work." 

"Mrs.  Ripley  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
women  of  her  generation.     Born  in   1793,  she  very 

18 


THE   FOUNDER  AND  HIS   IDEALS 

early  began  to  show  unusual  intellectual  ability, 
and  before  she  was  seventeen  she  had  become  a  fine 
Latin  scholar  and  had  read  also  all  the  Odyssey  in 
the  original."  Her  life-long  friend,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  writes  in  praise  of  her:  "The  rare  accom- 
plishments and  singular  loveliness  of  her  character 
endeared  her  to  all.  .  .  .  She  became  one  of  the  best 
Greek  scholars  in  the  country,  and  continued  in  her 
latest  years  the  habit  of  reading  Homer,  the  trage- 
dians, and  Plato.  But  her  studies  took  a  wide  range 
in  mathematics,  natural  philosophy,  psychology, 
theology,  and  ancient  and  modern  literature.  Her 
keen  ear  was  open  to  whatever  new  facts  astronomy, 
chemistry,  or  the  theories  of  light  and  heat  had  to 
furnish.  Absolutely  without  pedantry,  she  had  no 
desire  to  shine.  She  was  faithful  to  all  the  duties 
of  wife  and  mother  in  a  well-ordered  and  eminently 
hospitable  household  wherein  she  was  dearly  loved. 
She  was  without  appetite  for  luxury  or  display  or 
praise  or  influence,  with  entire  indifference  to 
trifles.  .  .  .  As  she  advanced  in  life  her  personal 
beauty,  not  remarked  in  youth,  drew  the  notice  of 
all." 

There  could  have  been  no  nobler,  saner  influence 
for  an  intellectual  boy  than  the  companionship  of 
this  unusual  woman,  and  if  we  are  to  begin  at  the 
beginning  of  Wcllesley's  story,  we  must  begin  with 

19 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

Mrs.  Ripley,  for  Mr.  Durant  often  said  that  she 
had  great  influence  in  inclining  his  mind  in  later  life 
to  the  higher  education  of  women. 

From  Waltham  the  young  man  went  in  1837  to 
Harvard,  where  we  hear  of  him  as  "not  specially 
studious,  and  possessing  refined  and  luxurious  tastes 
which  interfered  somewhat  with  his  pursuit  of  the 
regular  studies  of  the  college."  But  evidently  he  was 
no  ordinary  idler,  for  he  haunted  the  Harvard  Li- 
brary, and  we  know  that  all  his  life  he  was  a  lover  of 
books.  In  1 841  he  was  graduated  from  Harvard, 
and  went  home  to  Lowell  to  read  law  in  his  father's 
office,  where  Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  at  that  time  a 
partner.  The  dilettante  attitude  which  character- 
ized his  college  years  is  now  no  longer  in  evidence. 
He  writes  to  a  friend,  "I  shall  study  law  for  the 
present  to  oblige  father ;  he  is  in  some  trouble,  and  I 
wish  to  make  him  as  happy  as  possible.  The  future 
course  of  my  life  is  undetermined,  except  that  all 
shall  yield  to  holy  poetry.  Indeed  it  is  a  sacred 
duty.  I  have  begun  studying  law  ;  don't  be  afraid, 
however,  that  I  intend  to  give  up  poetry.  I  shall 
always  be  a  worshiper  of  that  divinity,  and  I  hope 
in  a  few  years  to  be  able  to  give  up  everything  and 
be  a  priest  in  her  temple."  After  a  year  he  writes, 
"I  have  not  written  any  poetry  this  whole  summer. 
Old  Mrs.  Themis  says  that  I  shall  not  visit  any  more 

20 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

at  the  Miss  Muses.  I'll  sec  the  old  catamaran 
hanged,  though,  but  what  I  will,  and  I'll  write  a 
sonnet  to  my  old  shoe  directly,  out  of  mere  despera- 
tion. Pity  and  sympathize  with  me."  And  on 
March  28,  1843,  we  find  him  writing  to  a  college 
friend  : 

"I  have  been  attending  courts  of  all  kinds  and 
assisting  as  junior  counsel  in  trying  cases  and  all 
the  drudgery  of  a  lawyer's  life.  One  end  of  my 
labor  has  been  happily  attained,  for  about  three 
weeks  ago  I  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and 
last  week  I  mustered  courage  to  stand  an  examina- 
tion of  my  qualifications  for  an  attorney,  and  the 
result  (unlike  that  of  some  examinations  during  my 
college  life)  was  fortunate,  with  compliments  from 
the  judge.  I  feel  a  certain  vanity  (not  unmixed, 
by  the  way,  with  self-contempt)  at  my  success, 
for  I  well  remember  I  and  a  dear  friend  of  mine 
used  to  mourn  over  the  impossibility  of  our  ever 
becoming  business  men,  and  lo,  I  am  a  lawyer.  — 
I  have  a  right  to  bestow  my  tediousness  on  any 
court  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  they  are  bound  to 
hear  me." 

From  1843  to  1847  he  practiced  at  the  Middlesex 
Bar,  and  from  1847,  when  lie  went  to  live  in  Boston, 
until  1863,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Suffolk  Bar. 
On  November  25,    1851,   he  had  his  name  changed 

11 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

by  act  of  the  Legislature.  There  were  eleven  other 
lawyers  by  the  name  of  Smith,  practicing  in  Boston, 
and  two  of  them  were  Henry  Smiths.  To  avoid  the 
inevitable  confusion,  Henry  Welles  Smith  became 
Henry  Fowle  Durant,  both  Fowle  and  Durant  being 
family  names. 

In  1852  Mr.  Durant  was  a  member  of  the  Boston 
City  Council,  but  did  not  again  hold  political  office. 
On  May  28,  1854,  he  married  his  cousin,  Pauline 
Adeline  Fowle,  of  Virginia,  daughter  of  the  late 
Lieutenant-colonel  John  Fowle  of  the  United  States 
Army  and  Paulina  Cazenove.  On  March  2,  1855, 
the  little  boy,  Henry  Fowle  Durant,  Jr.,  was  born, 
and  on  October  10,  1857,  a  little  girl,  Pauline  Caze- 
nove Durant,  who  lived  less  than  two  months.  On 
June  21,  1862,  we  find  the  Boston  Evening  Courier 
saying  of  the  prominent  lawyer:  "What  the  future 
has  in  store  for  Mr.  Durant  can  of  course  be  only 
predicted,  but  his  past  is  secure,  and  if  he  never 
rises  higher,  he  can  rest  in  the  consciousness  that 
no  man  ever  rose  more  rapidly  at  the  Suffolk  Bar 
than  he  has."  And  within  a  year  he  had  put  it  all 
behind  him,  —  a  sinful  and  unworthy  life,  —  and 
had  set  out  to  be  a  new  man.  That  there  was  sin 
and  unworthiness  in  the  old  life  we,  who  look  into 
our  own  hearts,  need  not  doubt ;    but  how  much  of 

sin,  how  much  of  unworthiness,  happily  we  need  not 

00 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

determine.  Mr.  Durant  was  probably  his  own 
severest  critic. 

Miss  Conant's  characterization  of  Air.  Durant, 
in  his  own  words  describing  James  Otis,  is  particularly 
illuminating  in  its  revelation  of  his  temperament. 
In  February,  i860,  he  said  of  James  Otis,  in  an 
address  delivered  in  the  Boston  Mercantile  Library 
Lecture  course  : 

"One  cannot  study  his  writings  and  history  and 
escape  the  conviction  that  there  were  two  natures  in 
this  great  man.  There  was  the  trained  lawyer,  man 
of  action,  prompt  and  brave  in  every  emergency. 
But  there  was  in  him  another  nature  higher  than 
this.  In  all  times  men  have  entertained  angels 
unawares,  ministering  spirits,  whose  missions  are 
not  wholly  known  to  themselves  even,  men  living 
beyond  and  in  advance  of  their  age. 

"We  call  them  prophets,  inspired  seers,  —  in  the 
widest  and  largest  sense  poets,  for  the}"  come  to 
create  new  empires  of  thought,  new  realms  in  the 
history  of  the  mind.  .  .  .  But  more  ample  traditions 
remain  of  his  powers  as  an  orator  and  of  the  aston- 
ishing effects  of  his  eloquence.  He  was  eminently  an 
orator  of  action  in  its  finest  sense;  his  contempo- 
raries speak  of  him  as  a  flame  of  fire  and  repeat  the 
phrase  as  if  it  were  the  only  one  which  could  express 
the    intense    passion    of    his    eloquence,    the    electric 

23 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

flames  which  his  genius  kindled,  the  magical  power 
which  swayed  the  great  assemblies  with  the  irresist- 
ible sweep  of  the  whirlwind." 

Mr.  Durant's  attitude  toward  education  is  also 
elucidated  for  us  by  Miss  Conant  in  her  apt  quota- 
tions from  his  address  on  the  American  Scholar, 
delivered  at  Bowdoin  College,  August,  1862  : 

"The  cause  of  God's  poor  is  the  sublime  gospel  of 
American  freedom.  It  is  our  faith  that  national 
greatness  has  its  only  enduring  foundation  in  the 
intelligence  and  integrity  of  the  whole  people.  It 
is  our  faith  that  our  institutions  approach  perfection 
only  when  every  child  can  be  educated  and  elevated 
to  the  station  of  a  free  and  intelligent  citizen,  and  we 
mourn  for  each  one  who  goes  astray  as  a  loss  to 
the  country  that  cannot  be  repaired.  .  .  .  From 
this  fundamental  truth  that  the  end  of  our 
Republic  is  to  educate  and  elevate  all  our  people, 
you  can  deduce  the  future  of  the  American 
scholar. 

"The  great  dangers  in  the  future  of  America  which 
we  have  to  fear  are  from  our  own  neglect  of  our  duty. 
Foes  from  within  are  the  most  deadly  enemies,  and 
suicide  is  the  great  danger  of  our  Republic.  With  the 
increase  of  wealth  and  commerce  comes  the  growing 
power  of  gold,  and  it  is  a  fearful  truth  for  states 
as  well  as  for  individual  men  that  'gold  rusts  deeper 

c24 


THE   FOUNDER   AND  HIS   IDEALS 

than  iron.'  Wealth  breeds  sensuality,  degradation, 
ignorance,  and  crime. 

"The  first  object  and  duty  of  the  true  patriot 
should  be  to  elevate  and  educate  the  poor.  Igno- 
rance is  the  modern  devil,  and  the  inkstand  that 
Martin  Luther  hurled  at  his  head  in  the  Castle  of 
Wartburg  is  the  true  weapon  to  fight  him  with." 

This  helps  us  to  understand  his  desire  that  Welles- 
ley  should  welcome  poor  girls  and  should  give  them 
every  opportunity  for  study.  Despite  his  aristo- 
cratic tastes  he  was  a  true  son  of  democracy  ;  the 
following,  from  an  address  on  "The  Influences  of 
Rural  Life",  delivered  by  him  before  the  Norfolk 
Agricultural  Society,  in  September,  1859,  might 
have  been  written  in  the  twentieth  century,  so 
modern  is  its  animus  : 

"The  age  of  iron  is  passed  and  the  age  of  gold  is 
passing  away ;  the  age  of  labor  is  coming.  Already 
we  speak  of  the  dignity  of  labor,  and  that  phrase  is 
anything  but  an  idle  and  unmeaning  one.  It  is  a 
true  gospel  to  the  man  who  takes  its  full  meaning; 
the  nation  that  understands  it  is  free  and  independent 
and  great. 

"The  dignity  of  labor  is  but  another  name  for 
liberty.  The  chivalry  of  labor  is  now  the  battle 
cry  of  the  old  world  and  the  new.  Ask  your  corn- 
fields   to   what    mysterious    power   they   do    homage 

25 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

and  pay  tribute,  and  they  will  answer  —  to  labor. 
In  a  thousand  forms  nature  repeats  the  truth,  that 
the  laborer  alone  is  what  is  called  respectable,  is 
alone  worthy  of  praise  and  honor  and  reward." 

IV 

In  a  letter  accompanying  his  will,  in  1867,  Mr. 
Durant  wrote:  "The  great  object  we  both  have  in 
view  is  the  appropriation  and  consecration  of  our 
country  place  and  other  property  to  the  service  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  erecting  a  seminary  on 
the  plan  (modified  by  circumstances)  of  South 
Hadley,  and  by  having  an  Orphan  Asylum,  not 
only  for  orphans,  but  for  those  who  are  more  forlorn 
than  orphans  in  having  wicked  parents.  Did  our 
property  suffice  I  would  prefer  both,  as  the  care 
(Christian  and  charitable)  of  the  children  would  be 
blessed  work  for  the  pupils  of  the  seminary." 

The  orphanage  was,  indeed,  their  first  idea,  and 
was,  obviously,  the  more  natural  and  conventional 
memorial  for  a  little  eight-year-old  lad,  but  the 
idea  of  the  seminary  gradually  superseded  it  as  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Durant  came  to  take  a  greater  and  greater 
interest  in  educational  problems  as  distinguished 
from  mere  philanthropy.  Miss  Conant  wisely  re- 
minds us  that,  "Just  at  this  time  new  conditions 
confronted    the    common    schools    of    the    country. 

26 


THE    FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

The  effects  of  the  Civil  War  were  felt  in  education 
as  in  everything  else.  During  the  war  the  business 
of  teaching  had  fallen  into  women's  hands,  and  the 
close  of  the  war  found  a  great  multitude  of  new  and 
often  very  incompetent  women  teachers  filling  posi- 
tions previously  held  by  men.  The  opportunities 
for  the  higher  education  of  women  were  entirely 
inadequate.  Mt.  Holyoke  was  turning  away  hun- 
dreds of  girls  every  year,  and  there  were  few  or 
no  other  advanced  schools  for  girls  of  limited 
means." 

In  1867  Mr.  Durant  was  elected  a  trustee  of  Mt. 
Holyoke.  In  1868  Mrs.  Durant  gave  to  Mt.  Hol- 
yoke ten  thousand  dollars,  which  enabled  the  semi- 
nar}' to  build  its  first  library  building.  We  are 
told  that  Air.  and  Mrs.  Durant  used  to  say  that 
there  could  not  be  too  many  Mt.  Holyokes.  And 
in  1870,  on  March  17,  the  charter  of  Wellesley 
Female  Seminary  was  signed  by  Governor  William 
Claflin. 

On  April  16,  1870,  the  first  meeting  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  was  held,  at  Mr.  Durant's  Marlborough 
Street  house  in  Boston,  and  the  Reverend  Edward 
N.  Kirk,  pastor  of  the  Mt.  \  ernon  Church  in  Boston, 
was  elected  president  of  the  board.  Mr.  Durant 
arranged  that  both  men  and  women  should  consti- 
tute the  Board  of  Trustees,  but  that  women  should 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

constitute  the  faculty ;  and  by  his  choice  the  first 
and  second  presidents  of  the  college  were  women. 
The  continuance  of  this  tradition  by  the  trustees  has 
in  every  respect  justified  the  ideal  and  the  vision 
of  the  founder.  The  trustees  were  to  be  members  of 
Evangelical  churches,  but  no  denomination  was  to 
have  a  majority  upon  the  board.  On  March  7, 
1873,  the  name  of  the  institution  was  changed  by 
legislative  act  to  Wellesley  College.  Possibly  visits 
to  Yassar  had  had  something  to  do  with  the  change, 
for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Durant  studied  Yassar  when  they 
were  making  their  own  plans. 

And  meanwhile,  since  the  summer  of  1871,  the 
great  house  on  the  hill  above  Lake  Waban  had  been 
rising,  story  on  story. 

Miss  Martha  Hale  Shackford,  Wellesley,  1896,  in 
her  valuable  little  pamphlet,  "College  Hall  ",  written 
immediately  after  the  fire,  to  preserve  for  future 
generations  of  Wellesley  women  the  traditions  of 
the  vanished  building,  tells  us  with  what  intentness 
Mr.  Durant  studied  other  colleges,  and  how,  working 
with  the  architect,  Mr.  Hammatt  Billings  of  Boston, 
"details  of  line  and  contour  were  determined  before 
ground  was  broken,  and  the  symmetry  of  the  huge 
building  was  assured  from  the  beginning." 

"Reminiscences  of  those  days  are  given  by  resi- 
dents  of  Wellesley,  who   recall  the  intense  interest 

28 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS  IDEALS 

of  the  whole  countryside  in  this  experiment.  From 
Natick  came  many  high-school  girls,  on  Saturday 
afternoons,  to  watch  the  work  and  to  make  plans 
for  attending  the  college.  As  the  brick-work  ad- 
vanced and  the  scaffolding  rose  higher  and  higher, 
the  building  assumed  gigantic  proportions,  impres- 
sive in  the  extreme.  The  bricks  were  brought  from 
Cambridge  in  small  cars,  which  ran  as  far  as  the 
north  lodge  and  were  then  drawn,  on  a  roughly  laid 
switch  track,  to  the  side  of  the  building  by  a  team 
of  eight  mules.  Other  building  materials  were  un- 
loaded in  the  meadow  and  then  transferred  by  cars. 
As  eighteen  loads  of  bricks  arrived  daily  the  pre- 
academic  aspect  of  the  campus  was  one  of  noise 
and  excitement.  At  certain  periods  during  the 
finishing  of  the  interior,  there  were  almost  three 
hundred  workmen."  A  pretty  story  has  come 
down  to  us  of  one  of  these  workmen  who  fell  ill, 
and  when  he  found  that  he  could  not  complete 
his  work,  begged  that  he  might  lay  one  more 
brick  before  he  was  taken  away,  and  was  lifted 
up  by  his  comrades  that  he  might  set  the  brick 
in   its   place. 

Mr.  Durant's  eye  was  upon  every  detail.  He  was 
at  hand  every  day  and  sometimes  all  day,  for  he 
often  took  his  lunch  up  to  the  campus  with  him, 
and   ate   it   with   the   workmen   in   their   noon   hour. 

29 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

In  1874  he  writes:  "The  work  is  very  hard  and  I 
get  very  tired.  I  do  feel  thankful  for  the  privilege 
of  trying  to  do  something  in  the  cause  of  Christ. 
I  feel  daily  that  I  am  not  worthy  of  such  a  privilege, 
and  I  do  wish  to  be  a  faithful  servant  to  my  Master. 
Yet  this  does  not  prevent  me  from  being  very  weary 
and  sorely  discouraged  at  times.  To-night  I  am  so 
tired  I  can  hardly  sit  up  to  write." 

And  from  one  who,  as  a  young  girl,  was  visiting 
at  his  country  house  when  the  house  was  building, 
we  have  this  vivid  reminiscence:  "My  first  impres- 
sion of  Mr.  Durant  was,  'Here  is  the  quickest 
thinker'  —  my  next  —  'and  the  keenest  wit  I  have 
ever  met.'  Then  came  the  day  when  under  the  long 
walls  that  stood  roofed  but  bare  in  the  solitude  above 
Lake  Waban,  I  sat  upon  a  pile  of  plank,  now  the 
flooring  of  Wellesley  College,  and  listened  to  Mr. 
Durant.  I  could  not  repeat  a  word  he  said.  I 
only  knew  as  he  spoke  and  I  listened,  the  door 
between  the  seen  and  the  unseen  opened  and  I  saw 
a  great  soul  and  its  quest,  God's  glory.  I  came  back 
to  earth  to  find  this  seer,  with  his  vision  of  the  wonder 
that  should  be,  a  master  of  detail  and  the  most  tireless 
worker.  The  same  day  as  this  apocalypse,  or  soon 
after,  I  went  with  Mr.  Durant  up  a  skeleton  stairway 
to  see  the  view  from  an  upper  window.  The  work- 
men were  all  gone  but  one  man,  who  stood  resting  a 

30 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

grimy  hand  on  the  fair  newly  finished  wall.  For  one 
second  I  feared  to  see  a  blow  follow  the  flash  of  Mr. 
Durant's  eye,  but  he  lowered  rather  than  raised  his 
voice,  as  after  an  impressive  silence  he  showed  the 
scared  man  the  mark  left  on  the  wall  and  his  enor- 
mity. .  .  .  Life  was  keyed  high  in  Mr.  Durant's 
home,  and  the  keynote  was  Wellesley  College.  While 
the  walls  were  rising  he  kept  workman's  hours.  Long 
before  the  family  breakfast  he  was  with  the  builders. 
At  prayers  I  learned  to  listen  night  and  morning  for 
the  prayer  for  Wellesley  —  sometimes  simply  an 
earnest  '  Bless  Thy  college.'  We  sat  on  chairs 
wonderful  in  their  variety,  but  all  on  trial  for  the 
ease  and  rest  of  Wellesley,  and  who  can  count  the 
stairways  Mrs.  Durant  went  up,  not  that  she  might 
know  how  steep  the  stairs  of  another,  but  to  find 
the  least  toilsome  steps  for  Wellesley  feet. 

"Night  did  not  bring  rest,  only  a  change  of  work. 
Letters  came  and  went  like  the  correspondence  of  a 
secretary  of  state.  Devotion  and  consecration  I 
had  seen  before,  and  sacrifice  and  self-forgetting, 
but  never  anything  like  the  relentless  toil  of  those 
two  who  toiled  not  for  themselves.  If  genius  and 
infinite  patience  met  for  the  making  of  Wellesley, 
side  by  side  with  them  went  the  angels  of  work  and 
prayer;  the  twin  angels  were  to  have  their  shrine 
in  the  college." 

31 


THE  STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

V 

On  September  8,  1875,  the  college  opened  its 
doors  to  three  hundred  and  fourteen  students. 
More  than  two  hundred  other  applicants  for  admis- 
sion had  been  refused  for  lack  of  room.  We  can 
imagine  the  excitement  of  the  fortunate  three  hun- 
dred and  fourteen,  driving  up  to  the  college  in  family 
groups,  —  for  their  fathers  and  mothers,  and  some- 
times their  grandparents  or  their  aunts  came  with 
them.  They  went  up  Washington  Street,  "the 
long  way",  past  the  little  Gothic  Lodge,  and  up  the 
avenue  between  the  rows  of  young  elms  and  purple 
beeches.  There  was  a  herd  of  Jersey  cows  grazing 
in  the  meadow  that  day,  and  there  is  a  tradition  that 
the  first  student  entered  the  college  by  walking  over 
a  narrow  plank,  as  the  steps  up  to  the  front  door 
were  not  yet  in  place ;  but  the  story,  though 
pleasantly  symbolical,  does  not  square  with  the 
well-known  energy  and  impatience  of  the  founder. 

The  students  were  received  on  their  arrival  by  the 
president,  Miss  Ada  L.  Howard,  in  the  reception 
room.  They  were  then  shown  to  their  rooms  by 
teachers.  The  majority  of  the  rooms  were  in  suites, 
a  study  and  bedroom  or  bedrooms  for  two,  three, 
and  in  a  few  suites,  four  girls.  There  were  almost 
no  single  rooms  in  those  days,  even  for  the  teachers. 

32 


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Kasl    Lodov 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS   IDEALS 

With  a  few  exceptions,  every  bedroom  and  every 
study  had  a  large  window  opening  outdoors.  There 
were  carpets  on  the  floors,  and  bookshelves  in  the 
studies,  and  the  black  walnut  furniture  was  simple 
in  design.  As  one  alumna  writes  :  "The  wooden 
bedsteads  with  their  wooden  slats,  of  vivid  memory, 
the  wardrobes,  so  much  more  hospitable  than  the 
two  hooks  on  the  door,  which  Matthew  Yassar 
vouchsafed  to  his  protegees,  the  high,  commodious 
bureaus,  with  their  'scant'  glass  of  fashion,  are  all 
endeared  to  us  by  long  association,  and  by  our 
straining  endeavors  to  rearrange  them  in  our  rooms, 
without  the  help  of  man." 

When  the  student  had  showed  her  room  to  her 
anxious  relatives,  on  that  first  day,  she  came  down 
to  the  room  that  was  then  the  president's  office, 
but  later  became  the  office  of  the  registrar.  There 
she  found  Miss  Sarah  P.  Eastman,  who,  for  the  first 
six  years  of  the  college  life,  was  teacher  of  history 
and  director  of  domestic  work.  Later,  with  her 
sister,  Miss  Julia  A.  Eastman,  she  became  one  of 
the  founders  of  Dana  Hall,  the  preparatory  school 
in  Wellesley  village.  An  alumna  of  the  class  of 
'80  who  evidently  had  dreaded  this  much-heralded 
domestic  work,  writes  that  Miss  Eastman's  person- 
ality robbed  it  of  its  horrors  and  made  it  seem  a 
noble  and  womanly  thing.     "W  hen,  in  her  sweet  and 

33 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

gracious  manner,  she  asked,  'How  would  you  like 
to  be  on  the  circle  to  scrape  dinner  dishes:'  you 
straightway  felt  that  no  occupation  could  be  more 
noble  than  scraping  those  mussy  plates." 

"All  that  day,"  we  are  told,  "confusion  was  inevit- 
able. Mr.  Durant  hovered  about,  excited,  anxious, 
yet  reassured  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  students, 
who  entered  with  eagerness  into  the  new  world. 
He  superintended  feeding  the  hungry,  answered 
questions,  and  studied  with  great  keenness  the 
faces  of  the  girls  who  were  entering  Wellesley  College. 
In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  it  had  been  discovered 
that  no  bell  had  been  provided  for  waking  the 
students,  so  a  messenger  went  to  the  village  to  beg 
help  of  Mrs.  Horton  (the  mother  of  the  professor  of 
Greek),  who  promptly  provided  a  large  brass  dinner- 
bell.  At  six  o'clock  the  next  morning  two  students, 
side  by  side,  walked  through  all  the  corridors,  ringing 
the  rising-bell,  —  an  act,  as  Miss  Eastman  says, 
symbolic  of  the  inner  awakening  to  come  to  all  those 
girls."  Thirty-nine  years  later,  at  the  sound  of  a 
bell  in  the  early  morning,  the  household  were  to 
awake  to  duty  for  the  last  time  in  the  great  building. 
The  unquestioning  obedience,  the  prompt  intelli- 
gence, the  unconscious  selflessness  with  which  they 
obeyed  that  summons  in  the  dawn  of  March  17, 
1 9 1 4 ,  witness  to  that  "inner  awakening." 

34 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS  IDEALS 

The  early  days  of  that  first  term  were  given  over 
to  examinations,  and  it  was  presently  discovered  that 
only  thirty  of  the  three  hundred  and  fourteen  would- 
be  college  students  were  really  of  college  grade. 
The  others  were  relegated  to  a  preparatory  depart- 
ment, of  which  Mr.  Durant  was  always  intolerant, 
and  which  was  finally  discontinued  in  1881,  the  year 
of  his  death. 

Mr.  Durant's  ideals  for  the  college  were  of  the 
highest,  and  in  many  respects  he  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  times  in  his  attitude  toward  educational 
matters.  He  meant  Wellesley  to  be  a  university 
some  day.  There  is  a  pretty  story,  which  cannot 
be  told  too  often,  of  how  he  stood  one  morning  with 
Miss  Louise  Manning  Hodgkins,  who  was  professor 
of  English  Literature  from  1877  to  1891,  and  looked 
out  over  the  beautiful  campus. 

"Do  you  see  what  I  see  ?"  he  asked. 

"No,"  was  the  quiet  answer,  for  there  were  few 
who  would  venture  to  say  they  saw  the  visions  in  his 
eyes. 

"Then  I  will  tell  you,'"  he  said.  "On  that  hill 
an  Art  School,  down  there  a  Musical  Conservatory, 
on  the  elevation  yonder  a  Scientific  School,  and  just 
beyond  that  an  Observatory,  at  the  farthest  right  a 
Medical  College,  and  just  there  in  the  center  a  new 
stone   chapel,  built    as    the  college  outgrew   the  old 

35 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

one.  Yes,  —  this  will  all  be  some  time  —  but  I 
shall  not  be  here." 

It  is  significant  that  the  able  lawyer  did  not  num- 
ber a  law  school  among  his  university  buildings, 
and  that  although  he  gave  to  Wellesley  his  personal 
library,  the  gift  did  not  include  his  law  library. 
Nevertheless,  there  are  lawyers  among  the  Wellesley 
graduates,  and  one  or  two  of  distinction. 

Mr.  Durant's  desire  that  the  college  should  do 
thorough,  original,  first-hand  work,  cannot  be  too 
strongly  emphasized.  Miss  Conant  tells  us  that, 
"For  all  scientific  work  he  planned  laboratories 
where  students  might  make  their  own  investigations, 
a  very  unusual  step  for  those  times."  In  1878, 
when  the  Physics  laboratory  was  started  at  Wellesley, 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  Whiting,  Harvard 
had  no  such  laboratory  for  students.  In  chemistry 
also,  the  Wellesley  students  had  unusual  opportuni- 
ties for  conducting  their  own  experimental  work. 
Mr.  Durant  also  began  the  collection  of  scientific 
and  literary  periodicals  containing  the  original  papers 
of  the  great  investigators,  now  so  valuable  to  the 
college.  ''This  same  idea  of  original  work  led  him 
to  purchase  for  the  library  books  for  the  study  of 
Icelandic  and  allied  languages,  so  that  the  English 
department  might  also  begin  its  work  at  the  root 
of  things.     He  wished  students  of  Greek  and  Latin 

36 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS  IDEALS 

to  illuminate  their  work  by  the  light  of  archaeology, 
topography,  and  epigraphy.  Such  books  as  then 
existed  on  these  subjects  were  accordingly  procured. 
In  1872  no  handbooks  of  archaeology  had  been  pre- 
pared, and  even  in  1882  no  university  in  America 
offered  courses  in  that  subject." 

His  emphasis  on  physical  training  for  the  students 
was  also  an  advance  upon  the  general  attitude  of  the 
time.  He  realized  that  the  Victorian  young  lady, 
with  her  chignon  and  her  Grecian  bend,  could  not 
hope  to  make  a  strong  student.  The  girls  were 
encouraged  to  row  on  the  lake,  to  take  long,  brisk 
walks,  to  exercise  in  the  gymnasium.  Mr.  Durant 
sent  to  England  for  a  tennis  set,  as  none  could  be 
procured  in  America,  "but  had  some  difficulty  in 
persuading  many  of  the  students  to  take  such  very 
violent  exercise." 

But  despite  these  far-seeing  plans,  he  was  often, 
during  his  lifetime,  his  own  greatest  obstacle  to  their 
achievement.  He  brought  to  his  task  a  large  inex- 
perience of  the  genus  girl,  a  despotic  habit  of  mind, 
and  a  temperamental  tendency  to  play  Providence. 
Theoretically,  he  wished  to  give  the  teachers  and 
students  of  Wellcsley  an  opportunity  to  show  what 
women,  with  the  same  educational  facilities  as  their 
brothers  and  a  free  hand  in  directing  their  own 
academic    life,     could     accomplish     for    civilization. 

37 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

Practically,  they  had  to  do  as  he  said,  as  long  as 
he  lived.  The  records  in  the  diaries,  letters,  and 
reminiscences  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
those  early  days,  are  full  of  Mr.  Durant's  commands 
and  coercions. 

On  one  historic  occasion  he  decides  that  the  entire 
freshman  schedule  shall  be  changed,  for  one  day, 
from  morning  to  afternoon,  in  order  that  a  conven- 
tion of  Massachusetts  school  superintendents,  meet- 
ing in  Boston,  may  hear  the  Wellesley  students 
recite  their  Greek,  Latin,  and  Mathematics.  In 
vain  do  the  students  protest  at  being  treated  like 
district  school  children ;  in  vain  do  the  teachers 
point  out  the  injury  to  the  college  dignity;  in  vain 
do  the  superintendents  evince  an  unflattering  lack 
of  interest  in  the  scholarship  of  Wellesley.  It  must 
be  done.  It  is  done.  The  president  of  the  fresh- 
man class  is  called  upon  to  recite  her  Greek  lesson. 
She  begins.  The  superintendents  chatter  and  laugh 
discourteously  among  themselves.  But  the  presi- 
dent of  the  freshman  class  has  her  own  ideas  of 
classroom  etiquette.  She  pauses.  She  waits,  silent, 
until  the  room  is  hushed,  then  she  resumes  her  recita- 
tion before  the  properly  disciplined  superintendents. 

In  religious  matters,  Mr.  Durant  was,  of  course, 
especially  active.  Like  the  Christian  converts  of 
an  earlier  day,  he  would  have  harried  and  hurried 

.'38 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS  IDEALS 

souls  to  Christ.  But  Victorian  girls  were  less  docile 
than  the  medieval  Franks  and  Goths.  They  seem, 
many  of  them,  to  have  eluded  or  withstood  this 
forceful  shepherding  with  a  vigilance  as  determined 
as  Mr.  Durant's  own. 

But  some  of  the  letters  and  diaries  give  us  such  a 
vivid  picture  of  this  early  Wellesley  that  it  would  be 
a  pity  not  to  let  them  speak.  The  diary  quoted  is 
that  of  Florence  Morse  Kingsley,  the  novelist,  who 
was  a  student  at  Wellesley  from  1876  to  1879,  but 
left  before  she  was  graduated  because  of  trouble  with 
her  eyes.  Already  in  the  daily  record  of  the  sixteen- 
year-old  girl  we  find  the  little  turns  and  twinkles  of 
phrase  which  make  Mrs.  Kingsley's  books  such  good 
reading. 

VI 

Wellesley  College,  September  iSth.,  1876.  I  haven't 
had  time  to  write  in  this  journal  since  I  came.  There  is 
so  much  to  do  here  all  the  time.  Besides,  I  have  changed 
rooms  and  room-mates.  I  am  in  Xo.  72  now  and  I  have 
a  funny  little  octagon-shaped  bedroom  all  to  myself,  and 
two  room-mates,  I.  W.  and  J.  S.  Both  of  these  are  in 
the  preparatory  department.  But  I  am  in  the  semi- 
collegiate  class,  because  I  passed  all  my  mathematics. 
But  I  didn't  have  quite  enough  of  the  right  Latin  to  be  a 
full  freshman.  We  get  up  at  6.30,  have  breakfast  at  7, 
then  a  class  at  7.55,  after  that  comes  silent  hour,  chapel, 
and  section  Bible  class.  Then  hours  again  till  dinner- 
time at  one,  and  after  dinner  till  4.55.      We  can  go  out- 


THE  STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

doors  all  we  want  to  and  to  the  library,  but  we  can't  go 
in  each  other's  rooms,  which  is  a  blessing.  There  are 
some  girls  here  who  would  like  to  talk  every  minute, 
morning,  noon  and  night. 

I  went  out  to  walk  this  afternoon  with  B.  We  were 
walking  very  slow  and  talking  very  fast,  when  all  of  a 
sudden  we  met  Mr.  Durant.  He  was  coming  along  like 
a  steam  engine,  his  white  hair  flying  out  in  the  wind. 
When  he  saw  us  he  stopped;  of  course  we  stopped  too, 
for  we  saw  he  wanted  to  speak  to  us. 

"That  isn't  the  way  to  walk,  girls,"  he  said,  very 
briskly.  "You  need  to  make  the  blood  bound  through 
your  veins  ;  that  will  stimulate  'the  mind  and  help  to  make 
you  good  students.  Come  now,  I'll  walk  with  you  as  far 
as  the  lodge,  and  show  you  what  I  mean." 

B.  and  I  just  straightened  up  and  walked  !  Air. 
Durant  talked  to  us  some  about  our  lessons.  He  seemed 
pleased  when  we  told  him  we  liked  geometry.  When  we 
got  back  to  the  college  we  told  the  girls  about  meeting 
Air.  Durant.  I  guess  nobody  will  want  to  dawdle  along 
after  this;    I'm  sure  I  shan't. 

Oct.  5.  I  broke  an  oar  to-day.  I'm  not  used  to  row- 
ing anyway,  and  the  oar  was  long;  two  of  us  sit  on  one 
seat,  each  pulling  an  oar.  There  is  room  for  eight  in  the 
boat,  beside  the  captain.  We  went  out  to-day  in  a  boat 
called  the  Ellida,  and  after  going  all  around  the  lake  we 
thought  it  would  be  fun  to  go  under  a  little  stone  bridge. 
The  captain  told  us  to  ship  our  oars;  I  didn't  ship  mine 
enough,  and  it  struck  the  side  of  the  bridge  and  snapped 
right  off.  I  was  dreadfully  frightened;  especially  as  the 
captain  said  right  away,  "You'll  have  to  tell  Air.  Durant." 

The  captain's   name  is  .     She  was   a   first  year 

girl,  and  on  that  account  thinks  a  great  deal  of  herself. 

40 


•    *■ 


Oiill.l.    I.nki-    Wtil.aii 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

I  wish  I'd  come  last  year.  It  must  have  been  lots  of 
fun. 

Well,  anyway,  I  thought  I  might  as  well  have  the  matter 
of  the  oar  over  with,  so  as  soon  as  we  landed  I  took  the 
two  pieces  of  the  oar  and  marched  straight  into  the  office. 
Air.  Durant  sat  there  at  the  desk.  He  appeared  to  be 
very  busy  and  he  didn't  look  at  me  at  first.  When  he 
did  my  heart  beat  so  fast  I  could  hardly  speak.  I  guess 
he  saw  I  was  frightened,  for  he  laughed  a  little  and  said, 
"Oh,  ho,  you've  had  an  accident,  I  see." 

I  told  him  how  it  happened,  and  he  said,  "Well,  you've 
learned  that  stone  bridges  are  stronger  than  oars;  and 
that  bit  of  information  will  cost  you  seventy  cents." 

I  was  so  relieved  that  I  laughed  right  out.  "I  thought 
it  would  cost  as  much  as  five  dollars,"  I  said.  I  like  Mr. 
Durant. 

October  15.  Mr.  Durant  talked  to  us  in  chapel  this 
morning  on  the  subject  of  being  honest  about  our  domestic 
work.  Of  course  some  girls  are  used  to  working  and  can 
hurry,  while  others  .  .  .  don't  even  know  how  to  tie  their 
shoestrings  or  braid  their  hair  properly  when  they  first 
come.  .  .  .  My  work  is  to  dust  the  center  on  the  first  floor. 
It's  easy,  and  if  I  didn't  take  lots  of  time  to  look  at  the 
pictures  and  palms  and  things  while  I  am  doing  it  I  couldn't 
possibly  make  it  last  an  hour.  But  I'm  thorough,  so  my 
conscience  didn't  prick  me  a  bit.  But  some  of  the  girls 
got  as  red  as  beets  and  .  .  .  cried  afterward  ;  she  hadn't 
swept  her  corridor  for  two  whole  days.  Mr.  Durant  cer- 
tainly does  get  down  to  the  roots  of  things,  and  if  you 
haven't  a  pretty  decent  conscience  about  your  lessons 
and  everything,  you  feel  as  though  you  had  a  clear  little 
window  right  in  the  middle  of  your  forehead  through 
which  he  can  look  in  and  see  the  disorder.     Some  of  the 

41 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

girls  say  they  are  just  paralyzed  when  he  looks  at  them ; 
but  I'm  not.  I  feel  like  doing  things  just  as  well  as  I  can. 
Sunday,  November  19.  We  had  a  missionary  from 
South  Africa  to  preach  in  the  chapel  this  morning.  He 
seemed  to  think  we  were  all  getting  ready  to  be  mission- 
aries, because  he  said  among  other  things  that  he  hoped 
to  welcome  us  to  the  field  as  soon  as  possible  after  we 
graduated.  His  complexion  was  very  yellow.  It  re- 
minded one  of  ivory,  elephants'  tusks  and  that  sort  of 
thing.  We  heard  afterward  that  he  wasn't  married,  and 
that  he  hoped  to  find  a  suitable  helpmate  here.  But 
although  Mr.  Durant  introduced  him  to  all  the  '79  girls 
I  didn't  think  he  liked  the  looks  of  any  of  them.  At  least 
he  didn't  propose  to  any  of  them  on  the  spot.  They're 
only  sophomores,  anyway,  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it, 
but  they  certainly  act  as  if  the  dignity  of  the  whole  in- 
stitution rested  on  their  shoulders.  Most  of  them  wear 
trails  every  day.     I  wish  I  had  a  trail. 

To  complete  this  picture  of  the  college  woman  in 
1876  we  need  the  description  of  the  college  president, 
by  a  member  of  the  class  of  '80:  "Miss  Howard 
with  her  young  face,  pink  cheeks,  blue  eyes,  and 
puffs  of  snow-white  hair,  wearing  always  a  long  trail- 
ing gown  of  black  silk,  cut  low  at  the  throat  and 
finished  with  folds  of  snowy  tulle."  None  of  these 
writers  gives  the  date  at  which  the  trail  disappeared 
from  the  classroom. 

The  following  letters  are  from  Mary  Elizabeth 
Stilwell,  a  member  of  that  same  class  of  '79  which 
wore    the    trails.      She,    like    Florence    Morse,    left 

4^2 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

college  on  account  of  her  health.  The  letters  are 
printed  by  the  courtesy  of  her  daughter,  Ruth 
Eleanor  McKibben,  a  graduate  of  Denison  College 
and  a  graduate  student  at  Wellesley  during  1914 
and  191 5.  Elizabeth  Stilwell  was  older  and  more 
mature  than  Florence  Morse,  and  her  letters  give 
us  the  old  Wellesley  from  quite  a  different  angle. 

Wellesley  College  — 

M  AT  Oct-  1<J,  '75- 

My   dear  Mother: —  /J 

If  you  are  at  all  discouraged  or  feel  the  need  of  some- 
thing to  cheer  you  up  you  had  better  lay  this  letter  aside 
and  read  it  some  other  time,  for  I  expect  it  will  be  exceed- 
ingly  doleful.  But  really,  Mother,  I  am  exceedingly  in 
earnest  in  what  I  am  going  to  write  and  have  thought  the 
whole  matter  over  carefully  before  I  have  ventured  a 
word  on  the  subject.  Wellesley  is  not  a  college.  The 
buildings  are  beautiful,  perfect  almost;  the  rooms  and 
their  appointments  delightful,  most  of  the  professors  are 
all  that  could  be  desired,  some  of  them  are  very  fine 
indeed  in  their  several  departments,  but  all  these  delight- 
ful things  are  not  the  things  that  make  a  college.  .  .  .  And, 
Oh!  the  experiments!  It  is  enough  to  try  the  patience 
of  a  Job.  I  came  here  to  take  a  college  course,  and  not 
to  dabble  in  a  little  of  every  insignificant  thing  that  comes 
up.  More  than  half  of  my  time  is  taken  up  in  writing 
essays,  practicing  elocution,  trotting  to  chapel,  and  read- 
ing poetry  with  the  teacher  of  English  literature,  and  it 
seems  to  make  no  difference  to  Miss  Howard  and  Mr. 
Durant  whether  the  Latin.  Greek  and  Mathematics  are 
well  learned  or  not.  The  result  is  that  I  do  not  have 
time   to   halt   learn   my   lessons.      My   real   college  work   is 

4:5 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

unsatisfactory,  poorly  done,  and  so  of  course  amounts  to 
about  nothing.  I  am  not  the  only  one  that  feels  it,  but 
every  member  of  the  freshman  class  has  the  same  feeling, 
and  not  only  the  students  but  even  the  professors.  You 
can  have  no  idea  of  how  these  very  professors  have  worked 
to  have  things  different  and  have  expostulated  and  ex- 
postulated with  Mr.  Durant,  but  all  to  no  avail.  He  is 
as  hard  as  a  flint  and  his  mind  is  made  up  of  the  most 
beautiful  theories,  but  he  is  perfectly  blind  to  facts.  He 
rules  the  college,  from  the  amount  of  Latin  we  shall  read 
to  the  kind  of  meat  we  shall  have  for  dinner;  he  even 
went  out  into  the  kitchen  the  other  day  and  told  the 
cook  not  to  waste  so  much  butter  in  making  the  hash,  for 
I  heard  him  myself. 

We  must  remember  that  the  writer  is  a  young 
girl,  intolerant,  as  youth  is  always  intolerant,  and 
that  she  was  writing  only  one  month  after  the  college 
had  opened.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  she  could 
understand  the  creative  excitement  under  which  the 
founder  was  laboring  in  those  first  years.  We,  who 
look  back,  can  appreciate  what  it  must  have  meant 
to  a  man  of  his  imagination  and  intensity,  to  see  his 
ideal  coming  true  ;  naturally,  he  could  not  keep  his 
hands  off.  And  wc  must  remember  also  that  until 
his  death  Mr.  Durant  met  the  yearly  deficit  of  the 
college.  This  gave  him  a  peculiar  claim  to  have  his 
wishes  carried  out,  whether  in  the  classroom  or  in 
the  kitchen. 

Miss  Stilwell  continues  : 

44 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS  IDEALS 

I  know  there  are  a  great  many  things  to  be  taken  into 
consideration.  I  know  that  the  college  is  new  and  that 
all  sorts  of  discouragements  are  to  be  expected,  and  that 
the  best  way  is  to  bear  them  patiently  and  hope  that  all 
will  come  out  right  in  the  end.  At  the  same  time  I  am 
determined  to  have  a  certain  sort  of  an  education,  and  I 
must  go  where  I  can  get  it.  .  .  .  Oh  !  if  I  could  only  make 
you  see  it  as  we  all  feel  it  !  It  is  such  a  bitter  disappoint- 
ment when  I  had  looked  forward  for  so  long  to  going  to 
college,  to  find  the  same  narrowness  and  cramped  feeling. 
—  There  is  one  other  thing  that  Mrs.  S.  (the  mother  of  one 
of  the  students)  spoke  of  yesterday,  which  is  very  true  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  and  that  is  in  regard  to  the  religious  influence. 
She  said  that  she  thought  that  Mr.  Durant  by  driving  the 
girls  so,  and  continually  harping  on  the  subject,  was  losing 
all  his  influence  and  was  doing  just  the  opposite  of  what 
he  intended.  I  know  that  with  my  room-mate  and  her  set 
he  is  a  constant  source  of  ridicule  and  his  exhortations  and 
prayers  are  retailed  in  the  most  terrible  way.  I  have  set  my 
foot  down  on  it  and  I  will  not  allow  anything  of  the  sort 
done  in  my  room,  but  I  know  that  it  is  done  elsewhere, 
and  that  every  spark  of  religious  interest  is  killed  by  the 
process.  I  have  firmly  made  up  my  mind  that  it  shall  not 
affect  me  and  I  have  succeeded  in  controlling  myself  this  far. 

On  December  31,  we  find  her  writing  :  "My  Greek 
is  the  only  pleasant  tiling  to  which  I  can  look  forward, 
and  I  am  quite  sure  good  instruction  awaits  me  there." 

In  1876  she  cheers  up  a  bit,  and  on  September  17, 
writes  :  "I  am  going  to  like  Miss  Lord  (professor  of 
Latin)  very  much  indeed  and  shall  derive  a  great  deal 
of  profit   from   her   teaching."     And  on  October  8, 

45 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

"Having  already  had  so  much  Greek,  I  think  I 
could  take  the  classical  course  for  Honors  right 
through,  even  though  I  did  not  begin  German  until 
another  year,  and  as  I  am  quite  anxious  to  study 
Chemistry  and  have  the  laboratory  practice  perhaps 
I  had  best  take  Chemistry  now  and  leave  German  for 
another  year.  It  is  indeed  a  problem  and  a  pro- 
found one  as  to  what  I  am  to  do  with  my  education 
and  I  am  very  anxious  to  hear  from  father  in  answer 
to  my  letter  and  get  his  thoughts  on  the  matter. 
I  have  the  utmost  confidence  in  Miss  Horton's 
judgment  (professor  of  Greek)  and  I  think  I  shall 
talk  the  matter  over  with  her  in  a  day  or  two." 

Evidently  the  "experiments"  which  had  taken 
so  much  of  her  time  in  1875  had  now  been  eliminated, 
and  she  was  able  to  respect  the  work  which  she  was 
doing.  Her  Sunday  schedule,  which  she  sends  her 
mother  on  October  15,  1876,  will  be  of  interest  to 
the  modern  college  girl. 

Rising  Bell    .     7  Prayer  Meeting    ...  5 

Breakfast      .     7.45     Supper 5.30 

Silent  Hour       9.30     Section  Prayer  Meeting  7.30 
Bible  Class  .     9.45     Once  a  Month  Missionary 

Prayer  Meeting      .     .  8 

Church     .      .      n         Silent  Hour        ....  9 

Dinner      .     .      1  Bed 9.30 

46 


THE   FOUNDER   AND   HIS   IDEALS 

And  in  addition  to  her  required  work,  this  ambitious 

young  student  has  arranged  a  course  of  reading  for 

herself : 

During  the  last  week  I  have  been  in  the  library  a  great 
deal  and  have  been  browsing  for  two  or  three  hours  at  a 
time  among  those  delightful  books.  I  have  arranged  a 
course  of  reading  upon  Art,  which  I  hope  to  have  time  to 
pursue,  and  then  I  have  made  selections  from  some  such 
authors  as  Kingsley,  Ruskin,  De  Quincey,  Hawthorne,  — 
and  Mrs.  Jameson,  for  which  I  hope  to  find  time.  Besides 
all  this  you  can't  imagine  what  domestic  work  has  been 
given  me.  It  is  in  the  library  where  I  am  to  spend  f  of 
an  hour  a  day  in  arranging  "studies"  in  Shakespeare. 
The  work  will  be  like  this:  —  Mr.  Durant  has  sent  for 
five  hundred  volumes  to  form  a  "Shakespeare  library.'' 
I  will  read  some  fully  detailed  life  of  Shakespeare  and 
note  dozvn  as  I  go  along  such  topics  as  I  think  are  interest- 
ing and  which  will  come  up  next  year  when  the  Juniors 
study  Shakespeare.  For  instance,  each  one  of  his  plays 
will  form  a  separate  topic,  also  his  early  home,  his  educa- 
tion, his  friendships,  the  different  characteristics  of  his 
genius,  &c.  Then  all  there  is  in  the  library  upon  this 
author  must  be  read  enough  to  know  under  what  topic 
or  topics  it  belongs  and  then  noted  under  these  topics. 
So  that  when  the  literature  class  come  to  study  Shake- 
speare next  year,  each  one  will  know  just  where  to  go  for 
any  information  she  may  want.  Mr.  Durant  came  to 
me  himself  about  it  and  explained  to  me  what  it  would 
be  and  asked  me  if  I  would  be  willing  to  take  it.  He  said 
I  could  do  just  as  I  wanted  to  about  it  and  if  I  felt  that 
it  would  be  tiresome  and  too  much  like  a  study  and  so  a 
strain  upon  me,  he  did  not  want  me  to  take  it.  I  have 
beei.1  thinking  of  it  now  for  a  day  or  two  and  have  come 

47 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

to  the  conclusion  to  undertake  it.  For  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  will  be  an  unusual  advantage  and  of  great  benefit 
to  me.  —  Another  reason  why  I  am  pleased  and  which  I 
could  tell  to  no  one  but  you  and  father  is  that  I  think  it 
shows  that  Mr.  Durant  has  some  confidence  in  me  and 
what  I  can  do.  But  —  "  tell  it  not  in  Gath  "  —  that  I  ever 
said  anything  of  the  kind. 

Thus  do  we  trace  Literature  9  (the  Shakespeare 
Course)  to  its  modest  fountainhead. 

Elizabeth  Stilwell  left  her  Alma  Mater  in  1877, 
but  so  cherished  were  the  memories  of  the  life  which 
she  had  criticized  as  a  girl,  and  so  thoroughly  did 
she  come  to  respect  its  academic  standards,  that  her 
own  daughters  grew  up  thinking  that  the  goal  of 
happy  girlhood  was  Wellesley  College. 

From  such  naive  beginnings,  amateur  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word,  the  Wellesley  of  to-day  has  arisen. 
Details  of  the  founder's  plan  have  been  changed  and 
modified  to  meet  conditions  which  he  could  not 
foresee.  But  his  "five  great  essentials  for  edu- 
cation at  Wellesley  College"  are  still  the  touch- 
stones of  Wellesley  scholarship.  In  the  founder's 
own  words  they  are  : 

''''First.         God    with    us;     no    plan    can    prosper 
without  Him. 

"Second.     Health  ;    no  system  of  education  can  be 
in  accordance  with  God's  laws  which 
injures  health. 
48 


THE   FOUNDER  AND   HIS  IDEALS 

"  Third.  Usefulness  ;  all  beauty  is  the  flower  of 
use. 

"Fourth.     Thoroughness. 

"Fifth.  The  one  great  truth  of  higher  education 
which  the  noblest  womanhood  de- 
mands; viz.  the  supreme  develop- 
ment and  unfolding  of  every  power 
and  faculty,  of  the  Kingly  reason,  the 
beautiful  imagination,  the  sensitive 
emotional  nature,  and  the  religious 
aspirations.  The  ideal  is  of  the 
highest  learning  in  full  harmony 
with  the  noblest  soul,  grand  by  every 
charm  of  culture,  useful  and  beautiful 
because  useful ;  feminine  purity  and 
delicacy  and  refinement  giving  their 
luster  and  their  power  to  the  most 
absolute  science  —  woman  learned 
without  infidelity  and  wise  without 
conceit,  the  crowned  queen  of  the 
world  by  right  of  that  Knowledge 
which  is  Power  and  that  Beauty 
which  is  Truth." 


49 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 
I 

WELLESLEY'S  career  differs  in  at  least  one 
obvious  and  important  particular  from  the 
careers  of  her  sister  colleges,  Smith,  Vassar,  and  Bryn 
Mawr,  —  in  the  swift  succession  of  her  presidents 
during  her  formative  years.  Smith  College,  open- 
ing in  the  same  year  as  Wellesley,  1875,  remained 
under  President  Seelye's  wise  guidance  for  thirty- 
five  years.  \  assar,  between  1886  and  1914,  had 
but  one  president.  Bryn  Mawr,  in  1914,  still 
followed  the  lead  of  Miss  Thomas,  first  dean  and 
then  president.  In  191 1,  Wellesley's  sixth  president 
was  inaugurated.  Of  the  five  who  preceded  Presi- 
dent Pendleton,  only  Miss  Hazard  served  more 
than  six  years,  and  even  Miss  Hazard's  term  of 
eleven  years  was  broken  by  more  than  one  long 
absence  because  of  illness. 

It  is  useless  to  deny  that  this  lack  of  administra- 
tive continuity  had  its  disadvantages,  yet  no  one 
who    watched     the    growth     and     development     of 

50 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

Wellesley  during  her  first  forty  years  could  fail  to 
mark  the  genuine  progression  of  her  scholarly  ideal. 
Despite  an  increasingly  hampering  lack  of  funds  — 
poverty  is  not  too  strong  a  word  —  and  the  dis- 
concerting breaks  and  changes  in  her  presidential 
policy,  she  never  took  a  backward  step,  and  she 
never  stood  still.  The  Wellesley  that  Miss  Freeman 
inherited  was  already  straining  at  its  leading  strings 
and  impatient  of  its  boarding-school  horizons  ;  the 
Wellesley  that  Miss  Shafer  left  was  a  college  in 
every  modern  acceptation  of  the  term,  and  its  aca- 
demic prestige  has  been  confirmed  and  enhanced  by 
each  successive  president. 

Of  these  six  women  who  were  called  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  Wellesley  in  her  first  half  century,  Miss 
Ada  L.  Howard  seems  to  have  been  the  least  force- 
ful ;  but  her  position  was  one  of  peculiar  difficulty, 
and  she  apparently  took  pains  to  adjust  herself  with 
tact  and  dignity  to  conditions  which  her  more  spirited 
successors  would  have  found  unbearably  galling. 
Professor  George  Herbert  Palmer,  in  his  biography 
of  his  wife,  epitomizes  the  early  situation  when  he 
says  that  Mr.  Durant  'khad,  it  is  true,  appointed 
Miss  Ada  L.  Howard  president;  but  her  duties  as 
an  executive  officer  were  nominal  rather  than  real  ; 
neither  his  disposition,  her  health,  nor  her  previous 
training  allowing  her  much  power." 

51 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Miss  Howard  was  a  New  Hampshire  woman,  the 
daughter  of  William  Hawkins  Howard  and  Adaline 
Cowden  Howard.  Three  of  her  great  grandfathers 
were  officers  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Her 
father  is  said  to  have  been  a  good  scholar  and  an 
able  teacher  as  well  as  a  scientific  agriculturist,  and 
her  mother  was  "a  gentlewoman  of  sweetness, 
strength  and  high  womanhood."  When  their  daugh- 
ter was  born,  the  father  and  mother  were  living  in 
Temple,  a  village  of  Southern  Xew  Hampshire  not 
very  far  from  JafTrey.  The  little  girl  was  taught 
by  her  father,  and  was  later  sent  to  the  academy  at 
New  Ipswich,  New  Hampshire,  to  the  high  school 
at  Lowell,  and  to  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  where  she 
was  graduated.  After  leaving  Mt.  Holyoke,  she 
taught  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  and  'she  was  at  one  time 
the  principal  of  the  Woman's  Department  of  Knox 
College,  Illinois.  In  the  early  '70's  this  was  a 
career  of  some  distinction,  for  a  woman,  and  Mr. 
Durant  was  justified  in  thinking  that  he  had  found 
the  suitable  executive  head  for  his  college.  We 
hear  of  his  saying,  "I  have  been  four  years  looking 
for  a  president.  She  will  be  a  target  to  be  shot  at, 
and  for  the  present  the  position  will  be  one  of  severe 
trials." 

Miss  Howard  came  to  Wcllesley  in  1875,  giving 
up  a  private  school  of  her  own,  Ivy  Hall,  in  Bridge- 

52 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

ton,  New  Jersey,  in  order  to  become  a  college  presi- 
dent. No  far-seeing  policies  can  be  traced  to  her, 
however ;  she  seems  to  have  been  content  to  press 
her  somewhat  narrow  and  rigid  conception  of  dis- 
cipline upon  a  more  or  less  restive  student  body, 
and  to  follow  Mr.  Durant's  lead  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  scholarship  and  academic  expansion. 
We  can  trace  that  expansion  from  year  to  year 
through  this  first  administration.  In  1877  the  Board 
of  Visitors  was  established,  and  eminent  educators 
and  clergymen  were  invited  to  visit  the  college  at 
stated  intervals  and  stimulate  by  their  criticism  the 
college  routine.  In  1878  the  Students'  Aid  Society 
was  founded  to  help  the  many  young  women  who 
were  in  need  of  a  college  training,  but  who  could  not 
afford  to  pay  their  own  way.  Through  the  wise 
generosity  of  Mrs.  Durant  and  a  group  of  Boston 
women,  the  society  was  set  upon  its  feet,  and  its 
long  career  of  blessed  usefulness  was  begun.  This 
is  only  one  of  the  man}'  gifts  which  Wellesley  owes  to 
Mrs.  Durant.  As  Professor  Katharine  Lee  Bates 
has  said  in  her  charming  sketch  of  Mrs.  Durant  in 
the  Wellesley  Legenda  for  1894:  "Her  specific 
gifts  to  Wellesley  it  is  impossible  to  completely 
enumerate.  She  has  forgotten,  and  no  one  else  ever 
knew.  So  long  as  Mr.  Durant  was  living,  husband 
and   wife   were  one   and   inseparable   in   service   and 

.5.') 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

donation.  But  since  his  death,  while  it  has  been 
obvious  that  she  spends  herself  unsparingly  in 
college  cares,  adding  many  of  his  functions  to  her 
own,  a  continuous  flow  of  benefits,  almost  unper- 
ceived,  has  come  to  Wellesley  from  her  open  hand." 
As  long  as  her  health  permitted,  she  lavished  "her 
very  life  in  labor  of  hand  and  brain  for  Wellesley, 
even  as  her  husband  lavished  his." 

In  1878  the  Teachers'  Registry  was  also  estab- 
lished, a  method  of  registration  by  which  those 
students  who  expected  to  teach  might  bring  their 
names  and  qualifications  before  the  schools  of  the 
country.  But  the  most  important  academic  events 
of  this  year,  and  those  which  reacted  directly  upon 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  college,  were  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Physics  laboratory,  under  the  careful 
supervision  of  Professor  Whiting,  and  the  endow- 
ment of  the  Library  by  Professor  Eben  N.  Horsford 
of  Cambridge.  This  endowment  provided  a  fund 
for  the  purchase  of  new  books  and  for  various  ex- 
penses of  maintenance,  and  was  only  one  of  the  many 
gifts  which  Wellesley  was  to  receive  from  this  gener- 
ous benefactor.  Another  gift,  of  this  year,  was  the  pipe 
organ,  presented  by  Mr.  William  H.  Groves,  for  the 
College  Hall  Chapel.  Later,  when  the  new  Memorial 
Chapel  was  built,  this  organ  was  removed  to  Billings 
Hall,  the  concert  room  of  the  Department  of  Music. 

54 


-J' 


Stone     Ha 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

On  June  24,  1879,  Wellesley  held  her  first  Com- 
mencement exercises,  with  a  graduating  class  of 
eighteen  and  an  address  by  the  Reverend  Richard 
S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  on  the  "Influence  of  Woman  in  the 

Future." 

In  1880,  on  May  27,  the  corner  stone  of  Stone 
Hall  was  laid,  the  second  building  on  the  college 
campus.  It  was  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Valeria  G.  Stone, 
and  was  intended,  in  the  beginning,  as  a  dormitory 
for  the  "teacher  specials."  Doctor  William  A. 
Willcox  of  Maiden,  a  devoted  trustee  of  Wellesley 
from  1878  to  1904,  and  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Stone,  was 
influential  in  securing  this  gift  for  the  college,  and 
it  was  he  who  first  turned  the  attention  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Durant  to  the  needs  of  the  women  who  had 
already  been  engaged  in  teaching,  but  who  wished 
to  fit  themselves  for  higher  positions  by  advanced 
work  in  one  or  more  particular  directions.  At  first, 
there  were  a  good  many  of  them,  and  even  as  late  as 
1889  and  1890  there  were  a  few  still  in  evidence  ;  but 
gradually,  as  the  number  of  regular  students  in- 
creased, and  accommodations  became  more  limited, 
and  as  opportunities  for  college  training  multiplied, 
these  "T.  Specs."  as  the}"  were  irreverently  dubbed 
by  the  undergraduates,  disappeared,  and  Stone 
Hall  has  for  many  years  been  filled  with  students 
in  regular  standing. 

55 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

On  June  10,  1880,  the  corner  stone  of  Music  Hall 
was  laid;  the  inscription  in  the  stone  reads:  "The 
College  of  Music  is  dedicated  to  Almighty  God  with 
the  hope  that  it  will  be  used  in  his  service."  There 
are  added  the  following  passages  from  the  Bible  : 

"Trust  ye  in  the  Lord  forever  :  for  in  the  Lord 
Jehovah  is  everlasting  strength."     Isaiah,  26 :  4. 

"Sing  praises  to  God,  sing  praises  : 

Sing  praises  unto  our  King,  sing  praises. 

For  God  is  the  King  of  all  the  earth."     Psalms,  47 :    6-7. 

The  building  was  given  by  the  founders. 

The  year  1881  is  marked  by  the  closing,  in  June, 
of  Wellesley's  preparatory  department,  another 
intellectual  advance.  In  June  also,  on  the  tenth, 
the  corner  stone  of  Simpson  Cottage  was  laid.  The 
building  was  the  gift  of  Mr.  Michael  Simpson,  and 
has  been  used  since  1908  as  the  college  hospital. 
In  the  autumn  of  1881,  Stone  Hall  and  Waban  Cot- 
tage—  the  latter  another  gift  from  the  founders  — 
were  opened  for  students. 

On  October  3,  1881,  Mr.  Durant  died,  and  shortly 
afterwards  Miss  Howard  resigned.  After  leaving 
Wellesley,  she  lived  in  Methuen,  Massachusetts,  and 
in  Brooklyn,  New  York,  where  she  died,  March  3, 
1907.  Mrs.  Marion  Peiton  Guild,  of  the  class  of 
'80,  says  of  Miss  Howard,  in  an  article  on  Wellesley 

56 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

written  for  the  New  England  Magazine,  October, 
1914,  that  "she  was  in  the  difficult  position  of  the 
nominal  captain,  who  is  in  fact  only  a  lieutenant. 
Yet  she  held  it  with  a  true  self-respect,  honoring 
the  fiery  genius  of  her  leader,  if  she  could  not  always 
follow  its  more  startling  flights  ;  and  not  hesitating 
to  withstand  him  in  his  most  positive  plans,  if  her 
long  practical  experience  suggested  that  it  was 
necessary."  From  Mt.  Holyoke,  her  Alma  Mater, 
Miss  Howard  received,  in  the  latter  part  of  her  life, 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters. 

II 

Wellesley's  second  president,  Alice  E.  Freeman,  is, 
of  all  the  six,  the  one  most  widely  known.  Her 
magnetic  personality,  her  continued  and  successful 
efforts  during  her  administration  to  bring  Wellesley 
out  of  its  obscurity  and  into  the  public  eye,  her 
extended  activity  in  educational  matters  after  her 
marriage,  gave  her  a  prominence  throughout  the 
country  which  was  surpassed  by  very  few  women  of 
her  generation.  And  her  husband's  reverent  and 
poetical  interpretation  of  her  character  has  secured 
for  her  reputation  a  literary  permanence  unusual 
to  the  woman  of  affairs  who  "wrote  no  books  and 
published  only  half  a  dozen  articles",  and  whose 
many  public  addresses  were  never  written. 

57 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

It  is  from  Professor  Palmer's  "Life  of  Alice 
Freeman  Palmer ",  published  by  the  Houghton 
Mifflin  Co.,  that  the  biographical  material  for  the 
brief  sketch  following  is  derived. 

Alice  Elvira  Freeman  was  born  at  Colesville, 
Broome  County,  New  York,  on  February  21,  1855. 
She  was  a  country  child,  a  farmer's  daughter  as  her 
mother  was  before  her.  James  Warren  Freeman, 
the  father,  was  of  Scottish  blood.  His  mother  was  a 
Knox,  and  his  maternal  grandfather  was  James  Knox 
of  Washington's  Life  Guard.  James  Freeman  was, 
as  we  should  expect,  an  elder  of  the  Presbyterian 
church.  The  mother,  Elizabeth  Josephine  Higley, 
"had  unusual  executive  ability  and  a  strong  dis- 
position to  improve  social  conditions  around  her. 
She  interested  herself  in  temperance,  and  in  legis- 
lation for  the  better  protection  of  women  and  chil- 
dren." Their  little  daughter  Alice,  the  eldest  of 
four  children,  taught  herself  to  read  when  she  was 
three  years  old,  and  we  find  her  going  to  school  at 
the  age  of  four.  When  she  was  seven,  her  father, 
urged  by  his  wife,  decided  to  be  a  physician,  and 
during  his  two  years'  absence  at  the  Albany  medical 
school,  Mrs.  Freeman  supported  him  and  the  four 
little  children.  The  incident  helps  us  to  understand 
the  ambition  and  determination  of  the  seventeen- 
year-old  daughter  when  she  declared  in  the  face  of 

58 


PRESIDENTS   AND   THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

her  parents'  opposition,  "that  she  meant  to  have  a 
college  degree  if  it  took  her  till  she  was  fifty  to  get 
it.  If  her  parents  could  help  her,  even  partially, 
she  would  promise  never  to  marry  until  she  had 
herself  put  her  brother  through  college  and  given  to 
each  of  her  sisters  whatever  education  they  might 
wish  —  a  promise  subsequently  performed." 

And  the  girl  had  her  own  ideas  about  the  kind  of 
college  she  meant  to  attend.  It  must  be  a  real 
college.  Mt.  Holyoke  she  rejected  because  it  was 
a  young  ladies'  seminary,  and  Elmira  and  Yassar 
fell  under  the  same  suspicion,  in  her  mind,  although 
they  were  nominally  colleges.  She  chose  Michigan, 
the  strongest  of  the  coeducational  colleges,  and  she 
entered  only  two  years  after  its  doors  were  opened 
to  women. 

She  did  not  enter  in  triumph,  however ;  the  acad- 
emy at  Windsor,  Xew  York,  where  she  had  gone 
to  school  after  her  father  became  a  physician,  was 
good  at  supplying  "general  knowledge"  but  "poorly 
equipped  for  preparing  pupils  for  college ",  and 
Doctor  Freeman's  daughter  failed  to  pass  her  en- 
trance examinations  for  Michigan  University.  Presi- 
dent Angell  tells  the  story  sympathetically  in  "The 
Life",  as  follows  : 

"In  1872,  when  Alice  Freeman  presented  herself 
at  my  office,  accompanied  by  her  father,   to  apply 

.5!) 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

for  admission  to  the  university,  she  was  a  simple, 
modest  girl  of  seventeen.  She  had  pursued  her 
studies  in  the  little  academy  at  Windsor.  Her 
teacher  regarded  her  as  a  child  of  much  promise, 
precocious,  possessed  of  a  bright,  alert  mind,  of 
great  industry,  of  quick  sympathies,  and  of  an  in- 
stinctive desire  to  be  helpful  to  others.  Her  prepara- 
tion for  college  had  been  meager,  and  both  she  and 
her  father  were  doubtful  of  her  ability  to  pass  the 
required  examinations.  The  doubts  were  not  with- 
out foundation.  The  examiners,  on  inspecting  her 
work,  were  inclined  to  decide  that  she  ought  to  do 
more  preparatory  work  before  they  could  accept 
her.  Meantime  I  had  had  not  a  little  conversation 
with  her  and  her  father,  and  had  been  impressed 
with  her  high  intelligence.  At  my  request  the 
examiners  decided  to  allow  her  to  enter  on  a  trial 
of  six  weeks.  I  was  confident  she  would  demon- 
strate her  capacity  to  go  on  with  her  class.  I  need 
hardly  add  that  it  was  soon  apparent  to  her  instruc- 
tors that  my  confidence  was  fully  justified.  She 
speedily  gained  and  constantly  held  an  excellent 
position  as  a  scholar." 

President  Angell  is  of  course  using  the  term 
"scholar"  in  its  undergraduate  connotation  for,  as 
Professor  Palmer  has  been  careful  to  state,  "In  no 
field  of  scholarship  was  she  eminent."     Despite  her 

60 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

eagerness  for  knowledge,  her  bent  was  for  people 
rather  than  for  books  ;  for  what  we  call  the  active 
and  objective  life,  rather  than  for  the  life  of  thought. 
Wellesley  has  had  her  scholar  presidents,  but  Miss 
Freeman  was  not  one  of  them.  This  friendly, 
human  temper  showed  itself  early  in  her  college 
days.  To  quote  again  from  President  Angell : 
"One  of  her  most  striking  characteristics  in  college 
was  her  warm  and  demonstrative  sympathy  with  her 
circle  of  friends.  .  .  .  Without  assuming  or  striving 
for  leadership,  she  could  not  but  be  to  a  certain 
degree  a  leader  among  these,  some  of  whom  have 
since  attained  positions  only  less  conspicuous  for 
usefulness  than  her  own.  .  .  .  No  girl  of  her  time 
on  withdrawing  from  college  would  have  been  more 
missed  than  she." 

It  is  for  this  eagerness  in  friendship,  this  sym- 
pathetic and  helpful  interest  in  the  lives  of  others 
that  Mrs.  Palmer  is  especially  remembered  at 
Wellesley.  Her  own  college  days  made  her  quick 
to  understand  the  struggles  and  ambitions  of  other 
girls  who  were  hampered  by  inadequate  preparation, 
or  by  poverty.  Her  husband  tells  us  that,  "When 
a  girl  had  once  been  spoken  to,  however  briefly, 
her  face  and  name  were  fixed  on  a  memory  where 
each  incident  of  her  subsequent  career  found  its 
place    beside    the    original    record.'"     And    he    gives 

61 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  following  incident  as  told  by  a  superintendent  of 
education. 

"Once  after  she  had  been  speaking  in  my  city, 
she  asked  me  to  stand  beside  her  at  a  reception. 
As  the  Wellesley  graduates  came  forward  to  greet 
her  —  there  were  about  eighty  of  them  —  she  said 
something  to  each  which  showed  that  she  knew  her. 
Some  she  called  by  their  first  names ;  others  she 
asked  about  their  work,  their  families,  or  whether 
they  had  succeeded  in  plans  about  which  they  had 
evidently  consulted  her.  The  looks  of  pleased 
surprise  which  flashed  over  the  faces  of  those  girls 
I  cannot  forget.  They  revealed  to  me  something 
of  Miss  Freeman's  rich  and  radiant  life.  For 
though  she  seemed  unconscious  of  doing  anything 
unusual,  and  for  her  I  suppose  it  was  usual,  her  own 
face  reflected  the  happiness  of  the  girls  and  showed 
a  serene  joy  in  creating  that  happiness." 

Her  husband,  in  his  analysis  of  her  character, 
has  a  remarkable  passage  concerning  this  very 
quality  of  disinterestedness.     He  says  : 

"Her  moral  nature  was  grounded  in  sympathy. 
Beginning  early,  the  identification  of  herself  with 
others  grew  into  a  constant  habit,  of  unusual  range 
and  delicacy.  .  .  .  Most  persons  will  agree  that  sym- 
pathy is  the  predominantly  feminine  virtue,  and 
that  she  who  lacks  it  cannot  make  its  absence  good 

62 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

by  any  collection  of  other  worthy  qualities.  In  a 
true  woman  sympathy  directs  all  else.  To  find  a 
virtue  equally  central  in  a  man  we  must  turn  to 
truthfulness  or  courage.  These  also  a  woman  should 
possess,  as  a  man  too  should  be  sympathetic ;  but 
in  her  they  take  a  subordinate  place,  subservient  to 
omnipresent  sympathy.  Within  these  limits  the 
ampler  they  are,  the  nobler  the  woman. 

"I  believe  Mrs.  Palmer  had  a  full  share  of  both 
these  manly  excellences,  and  practiced  them  in 
thoroughly  feminine  fashion.  She  was  essentially 
true,  hating  humbug  in  all  its  disguises.  .  .  .  Her  love 
of  plainness  and  distaste  for  affectation  were  forms 
of  veracity.  But  in  narrative  of  hers  one  got  much 
besides  plain  realities.  These  had  their  significance 
heightened  by  her  eager  emotion,  and  their  pictur- 
esqueness  by  her  happy  artistry.  ...  Of  course  the 
warmth  of  her  sympathy  cut  off  all  inclination  to 
falsehood  for  its  usual  selfish  purpose.  But  against 
generous  untruth  she  was  not  so  well  guarded. 
Kindness  was  the  first  thing.  .  .  .  Tact  too,  once  be- 
come a  habit,  made  adaptation  to  the  mind  addressed 
a  constant  concern.  She  had  extraordinary  skill  in 
stuffing  kindness  with  truth;  and  into  a  resisting 
mind  could  without  irritation  convey  a  larger  bulk 
of  unwelcome  fact  than  any  one  I  have  known. 
But  that  insistence  on  colorless  statement  which  in 

63 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

our  time  the  needs  of  trade  and  science  have  made 
current  among  men,  she  did  not  feel.  Lapses  from 
exactitude  which  do  not  separate  person  from  person 
she  easily  condoned." 

Surely  the  manly  virtues  of  truthfulness  and 
courage  could  be  no  better  exemplified  than  in  the 
writing  of  this  passage.  Whether  his  readers, 
especially  the  women,  will  agree  with  Professor 
Palmer  that,  in  woman,  truthfulness  and  courage 
"take  a  subordinate  place,  subservient  to  omni- 
present sympathy",  is  a  question. 

Between  1876  when  she  was  graduated  from  Michi- 
gan, and  1879  when  she  went  to  Wellesley,  Miss 
Freeman  taught  with  marked  success,  first  at  a 
seminary  in  the  town  of  Lake  Geneva,  Wisconsin, 
where  she  had  charge  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  ;  and 
later  as  assistant  principal  of  the  high  school  at 
Saginaw  in  Xorthern  Michigan.  Here  she  was 
especially  successful  in  keeping  order  among  unruly 
pupils.  The  summer  of  1877  she  spent  in  Ann 
Arbor,  studying  for  a  higher  degree,  and  although 
she  never  completed  the  thesis  for  this  work, 
the  university  conferred  upon  her  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.  in  1882,  the  first  year  of  her  presidency  at 
Wellesley. 

In  this  same  summer  of  1877,  when  she  was  study- 
ing at  Ann  Arbor,  she  received  her  first  invitation 

04 


PRESIDENTS   AND   THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

to  teach  at  Wellesley.  Mr.  Durant  offered  her  an 
instructorship  in  Mathematics,  which  she  declined. 
In  1878  she  was  again  invited,  this  time  to  teach 
Greek,  but  her  sister  Stella  was  dying,  and  Miss 
Freeman,  who  had  now  settled  her  entire  family  at 
Saginaw,  would  not  leave  them.  In  June,  1879,  the 
sister  died,  and  in  July  Miss  Freeman  became  the 
head  of  the  Department  of  History  at  Wellesley, 
at    the    age    of    twenty-four. 

Mr.  Durant's  attention  had  first  been  drawn  to 
her  by  her  good  friend  President  Angell,  and  he  had 
evidently  followed  her  career  as  a  teacher  with  in- 
terest. There  seems  to  have  been  no  abatement  in 
his  approval  after  she  went  to  Wellesley.  We  are 
told  that  they  did  not  always  agree,  but  this  does  not 
seem  to  have  affected  their  mutual  esteem.  In  her 
first  year,  Mr.  Durant  is  said  to  have  remarked  to  one 
of  the  trustees,  "You  see  that  little  dark-eyed  girl? 
She  will  be  the  next  president  of  Wellesley."  And 
before  he  died,  he  made  his  wishes  definitely  known 
to  the  board. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  trustees,  on  Xovember  15, 
1 88 1,  Miss  Freeman  was  appointed  vice  president 
of  the  college  and  acting  president  for  the  year. 
She  was  then  twenty-six  years  of  age  and  the  young- 
est professor  in  the  college.  In  1882  she  became 
president. 

O.j 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

During  the  next  six  years,  Wellesley's  growth  was 
as  normal  as  it  was  rapid.  This  is  a  period  of 
internal  organization  which  achieved  its  most  im- 
portant result  in  the  evolution  of  the  Academic 
Council.  "In  earlier  days,"  we  are  told  by  Pro- 
fessor Palmer,  "teachers  of  every  rank  met  in  the 
not  very  important  faculty  meetings,  to  discuss  such 
details  of  government  or  instruction  as  were  not 
already  settled  by  Mr.  Durant."  But  even  then  the 
faculty  was  built  up  out  of  departmental  groups, 
that  is,  "all  teachers  dealing  with  a  common  sub- 
ject were  banded  together  under  a  head  professor 
and  constituted  a  single  unit,"  and,  as  Mrs.  Guild 
tells  us,  Miss  Freeman  "naturally  fell  to  consulting 
the  heads  of  departments  as  the  abler  and  more 
responsible  members  of  the  faculty,"  instead  of 
laying  her  plans  before  the  whole  faculty  at  its  more 
or  less  cumbersome  weekly  meetings.  From  this 
inner  circle  of  heads  of  departments  the  Academic 
Council  was  gradually  evolved.  It  now  includes  the 
president,  the  dean,  professors,  associate  professors 
(unless  exempted  by  a  special  tenure  of  office),  and 
such  other  officers  of  instruction  and  administration 
as  may  be  given  this  responsibility  by  vote  of  the 
trustees. 

Miss  Freeman  also  "began  the  formation  of  stand- 
ing committees  of  the  faculty  on  important  subjects, 

G6 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

such     as    entrance    examinations,    graduate    work, 
preparatory  schools,  etc." 

This  faculty,  over  which  Miss  Freeman  presided, 
was  a  notable  one,  a  body  of  women  exhibiting  in 
marked  degree  those  qualities  and  virtues  of  the 
true  pioneer  :  courage,  patience,  originality,  resource- 
fulness, and  vision.  There  were  strong  groups  from 
Ann  Arbor  and  Obcrlin  and  Alt.  Holyoke,  and  there 
was  a  fourth  group  of  "pioneer  scholars,  not  wholly 
college  bred,  but  enriched  with  whatever  amount  of 
academic  training  they  could  wring  or  charm  from  a 
reluctant  world,  whom  Wellesley  will  long  honor  and 
revere." 

With  the  organization  of  the  faculty  came  also 
the  organization  of  the  college  work.  Entrance 
examinations  were  made  more  severe.  Greek  had 
been  first  required  for  entrance  in  1 88 1 .  A  certifi- 
cate of  admission  was  drawn  up,  stating  exactly 
what  the  candidate  had  accomplished  in  prepara- 
tion for  college.  Courses  of  study  were  standardized 
and  simplified.  In  1882,  the  methods  of  Bible  study 
were  reorganized,  and  instead  of  the  daily  classes, 
to  which  no  serious  study  had  been  given,  two  hours 
a  week  of  "examinable  instruction"  were  sub- 
stituted. In  this  year  also  the  gymnasium  was 
refitted  under  the  supervision  of  Doctor  D.  A. 
Sargent  of  Harvard. 

(i7 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Miss  Freeman's  policy  of  establishing  preparatory 
schools  which  should  be  "feeders"  for  Wellesley 
was  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  college  at  this 
time,  as  "in  only  a  few  high  schools  were  the  girls 
allowed  to  join  classes  which  fitted  boys  for  college." 
When  Miss  Freeman  became  president,  Dana  Hall 
was  the  only  Wellesley  preparatory  school  in  exist- 
ence;  but  in  1884,  through  her  efforts,  an  important 
school  was  opened  in  Philadelphia,  and  before  the 
end  of  her  presidency,  she  had  been  instrumental  in 
furthering  the  organization  of  fifteen  other  schools 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  officered  for  the 
most  part  by  Wellesley  graduates. 

In  this  same  year  the  Christian  Association  was 
organized.  Its  history,  bound  up  as  it  is  with  the 
student  life,  will  be  given  more  fully  in  a  later  chap- 
ter, but  we  must  not  forget  that  Miss  Freeman  gave 
the  association  its  initial  impulse  and  established  its 
broad  type. 

In  1884  also,  we  find  Wellesley  petitioning  before 
the  committee  on  education  at  the  State  House  in 
Boston,  to  extend  its  holdings  from  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  five  million  dollars,  and  gaining 
the  petition. 

On  June  22,  1885,  the  corner  stone  of  the  Decennial 
Cottage,  afterwards  called  Norumbega,  was  laid. 
The  building  was  given   by  the  alumnae,   aided    by 

68 


*'.!•"■■■■■  .- 


n    v. 


. .     •  "*-   . 


—  - 

r  n*  C 


In   the  Old  Colloire  Hall   Library 


PRESIDENTS   AND   THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

Professor  Horsford,  Mr.  E.'A.  Goodenow  and  Mr. 
Elisha  S.  Converse  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  Norum- 
bega  was  for  many  years  known  as  the  President's 
House,  for  here  Miss  Freeman,  Miss  Shafer,  and  Mrs. 
Irvine  lived.  In  the  academic  year  1901-02,  when 
Miss  Hazard  built  the  house  for  herself  and  her  suc- 
cessors, the  president's  modest  suite  in  Norumbega 
was  set  free  for  other  purposes. 

In  1886,  Norumbega  was  opened,  and  in  June  of 
that  year,  the  Library  Festival  was  held  to  celebrate 
Professor  Horsford's  many  benefactions  to  the 
college.  These  included  the  endowment  of  the 
Library,  an  appropriation  for  scientific  apparatus, 
and  a  system  of  pensions. 

In  a  letter  to  the  trustees,  dated  January  1,  1886, 
the  donor  explains  that  the  annual  appropriation  for 
the  library  shall  be  for  the  salaries  of  the  librarian 
and  assistants,  for  books  for  the  library,  and  for 
binding  and  repairs.  That  the  appropriation  for 
scientific  apparatus  shall  go  toward  meeting  the 
needs  of  the  departments  of  Physics,  Chemistry, 
Botany,  and  Biology.  And  that  the  System  of 
Pensions  shall  include  a  Sabbatical  Grant,  and  a 
''Salary  Augment  and  Pension."  By  the  Sabbatical 
Grant,  the  heads  of  certain  departments  are  able  to 
take  a  year  of  travel  and  residence  abroad  every 
seventh  year  on  half  salary.     The  donor  stipulated, 

(i!) 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

however,  that  "the  offices  contemplated  in  the  grants 
and  pensions  must  be  held  by  ladies." 

In  his  memorable  address  on  this  occasion,  Pro- 
fessor Horsford  outlines  his  ideal  for  the  library 
which  he  generously  endowed  : 

"But  the  uses  of  books  at  a  seat  of  learning  reach 
beyond  the  wants  of  the  undergraduates.  The 
faculty  need  supplies  from  the  daily  widening  field 
of  literature.  They  should  have  access  to  the  peri- 
odical issues  of  contemporary  research  and  criticism 
in  the  various  branches  of  knowledge  pertaining  to 
their  individual  departments.  In  addition  to  these, 
the  progressive  culture  of  an  established  college 
demands  a  share  in  whatever  adorns  and  ennobles 
scholarly  life,  and  principally  the  opportunity  to  know 
something  of  the  best  of  all  the  past,  — -  the  writers 
of  choice  and  rare  books.  To  meet  this  demand 
there  will  continue  to  grow  the  collections  in  special- 
ties for  bibliographical  research,  which  starting  like 
the  suite  of  periodicals  with  the  founder,  have  been 
nursed,  as  they  will  continue  to  be  cherished,  under 
the  wise  direction  of  the  Library  Council.  Some  of 
these  will  be  gathered  in  concert,  it  may  be  hoped, 
with  neighboring  and  venerable  and  hospitable 
institutions,  that  costly  duplicates  may  be  avoided  ; 
some  will  be  exclusively  our  own. 

"To    these   collections    of   specialties    may   come, 

70 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

as  to  a  joint  estate  in  the  republic  of  letters,  not 
alone  the  faculty  of  the  college,  but  such  other 
persons  of  culture  engaged  in  literary  labor  as  may 
not  have  found  facilities  for  conducting  their  re- 
searches elsewhere,  and  to  whom  the  trustees  may 
extend  invitation  to  avail  themselves  of  the  resources 
of  our  library." 

These  ideals  of  scholarship  and  hospitality  the 
Wellesley  College  Library  never  forgets.  Her  Plimp- 
ton collection  of  Italian  manuscripts  is  a  treasure- 
house  for  students  of  the  Italy  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  Renaissance  ;  and  her  alumnae,  as  well  as  scholars 
from  other  colleges  and  other  lands,  are  given  every 
facility  for  study. 

In  1887,  two  dormitories  were  added  to  the  college  : 
Freeman  Cottage,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Durant,  and  the 
Eliot,  the  joint  gift  of  Mrs.  Durant  and  Mr.  H.  H. 
Hunnewell.  Originally  the  Eliot  had  been  used  as  a 
boarding-house  for  the  young  women  working  in  a 
shoe  factor}'  at  that  time  running  in  Wellesley  village, 
but  after  Mrs.  Durant  had  enlarged  and  refurnished 
it,  students  who  wished  to  pay  a  part  of  their  ex- 
penses by  working  their  way  through  college  were 
boarded  there.  Some  years  later  it  was  again  en- 
larged, and  used  as  a  village-house  for  freshmen. 

In  December,  1887,  Miss  Freeman  resigned  from 
Wellesley  to  marry  Professor  George  Herbert  Palmer 

71 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

of  Harvard ;  but  her  interest  in  the  college  did  not 
flag,  and  during  her  lifetime  she  continued  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  From  1892  to 
1895  she  held  the  office  of  Dean  of  Women  of  the 
University  of  Chicago ;  and  Radcliffe,  Bradford 
Academy,  and  the  International  Institute  for  Girls, 
in  Spain,  can  all  claim  a  share  in  her  fostering  interest. 
From  1889  until  the  end  of  her  life,  she  was  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,  having 
been  appointed  by  Governor  Ames  and  reappointed 
by  Governor  Greenhalge  and  Governor  Crane. 

In  addition  to  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  received  from 
Michigan  in  1882,  Miss  Freeman  received  the  honor- 
ary degree  of  Litt.D.  from  Columbia  in  1887,  and 
in  1895  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.,  from  Union 
University. 

What  she  meant  to  the  women  who  were  her 
comrades  at  Wellesley  in  those  early  days  —  the 
women  who  held  up  her  hands  —  is  expressed  in  an 
address  by  Professor  Whiting  at  the  memorial 
service  held  in  the  chapel  in  December,  1903  : 

"I  think  of  her  in  her  office,  which  was  also  her 
private  parlor,  with  not  even  a  skilled  secretary  at 
first,  toiling  with  all  the  correspondence,  seeing 
individual  girls  on  academic  and  social  matters, 
setting  them  right  in  cases  of  discipline,  interviewing 
members   of   the   faculty   on    necessary   plans.     The 

72 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

work  was  overwhelming  and  sometimes  her  one 
assistant  would  urge  her,  late  in  the  evening,  to 
nibble  a  bite  from  a  tray  which,  to  save  time,  had 
been  sent  in  to  her  room  at  the  dinner  hour,  only  to 
remain  untouched.  .  .  .  No  wonder  that  professors 
often  left  their  lectures  to  be  written  in  the  wee  small 
hours,  to  help  in  uncongenial  administrative  work, 
which  was  not  in  the  scope  of  their  recognized  duties." 
The  pathos  of  her  death  in  Paris,  in  December, 
1902,  came  as  a  shock  to  hundreds  of  people  whose 
lives  had  been  brightened  by  her  eager  kindliness  ; 
and  her  memory  will  always  be  especially  cherished 
by  the  college  to  which  she  gave  her  youth.  The 
beautiful  memorial  in  the  college  chapel  will  speak 
to  generations  of  Wellesley  girls  of  this  lovable  and 
ardent  pioneer. 

Ill 

Wellesley's  debt  to  her  third  president,  Helen  A. 
Shafer,  is  nowhere  better  defined  than  in  the  words 
of  a  distinguished  alumna,  Sophonisba  P.  Breck- 
enridge,  writing  on  Miss  Shafer's  administration, 
in  the  Wellesley  College  News  of  November  2,  1901. 
Miss  Breckenridge  says  : 

It  is  said  that  in  a  great  city  on  the  shore  of  a  western 
lake  the  discovery  was  made  one  day  that  the  surface  of 
the  water  had  gradually  risen  and  that  stately  buildings 

73 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

on  the  lake  front  designed  for  the  lower  level  had  been 
found  both  misplaced  and  inadequate  to  the  pressure  of 
the  high  level.  They  were  fair  without,  well  propor- 
tioned and  inviting;  but  they  were  unsteady  and  their 
collapse  was  feared.  To  take  them  down  seemed  a  great 
loss :  to  leave  them  standing  as  they  were  was  to  expose 
to  certain  perils  those  who  came  and  went  within  them. 
They  proved  to  be  the  great  opportunity  of  the  engineer. 
He  first,  without  interrupting  their  use,  or  disturbing 
those  who  worked  within,  made  them  safe  and  sure  and 
steady,  able  to  meet  the  increased  pressure  of  the  higher 
level,  and  then,  likewise  without  interfering  with  the  day's 
work  of  any  man,  by  skillful  hidden  work,  adapted  them 
to  the  new  conditions  by  raising  their  level  in  correspond- 
ing measure.  The  story  told  of  that  engineer's  great 
achievement  in  the  mechanical  world  has  always  seemed 
applicable  to  the  service  rendered  by  Miss  Shafer  to  the 
intellectual  structure  of  Wellesley. 

Under  the  devoted  and  watchful  supervision  of  the 
founders,  and  under  the  brilliant  direction  of  Miss  Free- 
man, brave  plans  had  been  drawn,  honest  foundations 
laid  and  stately  walls  erected.  The  level  from  which  the 
measurements  were  taken  was  no  low  level.  It  was  the 
level  of  the  standard  of  scholarship  for  women  as  it  was 
seen  by  those  who  designed  the  whole  beautiful  structure. 
To  its  spacious  shelter  were  tempted  women  who  had  to 
do  with  scholarly  pursuits  and  girls  who  would  be  fitted 
for  a  life  upon  that  plane.  But  during  those  first  years 
that  level  itself  was  rising,  and  by  its  rising  the  very 
structure  was  threatened  with  instability  if  not  collapse. 
And  then  she  came.  Much  of  the  work  of  her  short  and 
unfinished  administration  was  quietly  done;  making  safe 
unsafe  places,  bringing  stability  where  instability  was  shown, 

74 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

requires  hidden,  delicate,  sure  labor  and  absorbed  atten- 
tion. That  'labor  and  that  attention  she  gave.  It  re- 
quired exact  knowledge  of  the  danger,  exact  fitting  of  the 
brace  to  the  rift.  That  she  accomplished  until  the  struc- 
ture was  again  fit.  And  then,  by  fine  mechanical  devices, 
well  adapted  to  their  uses,  patiently  but  boldly  used,  she 
undertook  to  raise  the  level  of  the  whole,  that  under  the 
new  claims  upon  women  Wellesley  might  have  as  com- 
manding a  position  as  it  had  assumed  under  the  earlier 
circumstances.  It  was  a  very  definite  undertaking  to 
which  she  put  her  hand,  which  she  was  not  allowed  to 
complete.  So  clearly  was  it  outlined  in  her  mind,  so 
definitely  planned,  that  in  the  autumn  of  1893,  she 
thought  if  she  were  allowed  four  years  more  she  would 
feel  that  her  task  was  done  and  be  justified  in  asking  to 
surrender  to  other  hands  the  leadership.  After  the  time  at 
which  this  estimate  was  made,  she  was  allowed  three 
months,  and  the  hands  were  stilled.  But  the  hands  had 
been  so  sure,  the  work  so  skillful,  the  plans  so  intelligent 
and  the  purpose  so  wise  that  the  essence  of  the  task  was 
accomplished.  The  peril  of  collapse  had  been  averted 
and  the  level  of  the  whole  had  been  forever  raised.  The 
time  allowed  was  five  short  years,  of  which  one  was 
wholly  claimed  by  the  demands  of  the  frail  body;  the 
situation  presented  main-  difficulties.  The  service,  too, 
was  in  main'  respects  of  the  kind  whose  glory  is  in  its 
inconspicuousness  and  obscure  character,  a  structure  that 
would  stand  when  builders  were  gone,  a  device  that  would 
serve  its  end  when  its  inventor  was  no  more. — These 
are  her  contribution.  And  because  that  contribution 
was  so  well  made,  it  has  been  ever  since  taken  for  granted. 
Her  administration  is  little  known  and  this  is  as  she 
would  have  it  —  since  it  means  that  the  extent  to  which 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

her  services  were  needed  is  likewise  little  realized.  But 
to  those  who  do  know  and  who  do  realize,  it 'is  a  glorious 
memory  and  a  glorious  aspiration. 

Rare  delicacy  of  perception,  keen  sympathy,  exquisite 
honesty,  scholarly  attainment  of  a  very  high  order, 
humility  of  that  kind  which  enables  one  to  sit  without 
mortification  among  the  lowly,  without  self-consciousness 
among  the  great  —  these  are  some  of  the  gifts  which 
enabled  her  to  do  just  the  work  she  did,  at  the  time  when 
just  that  contribution  to  the  permanence  and  dignity  of 
Wellesley  was  so  essential. 

Miss  Freeman's  work  we  may  characterize  as,  in 
its  nature,  extensive.  Miss  Shafer's  was  intensive. 
The  scholar  and  the  administrator  were  united  in 
her  personality,  but  the  scholar  led.  The  crowning 
achievement  of  her  administration  was  what  was 
then  called  "the  new  curriculum." 

In  the  college  calendars  from  1876  to  1879,  we 
find  as  many  as  seven  courses  of  study  outlined. 
There  was  a  General  Course  for  which  the  degree  of 
B.A.  was  granted,  with  summa  cum  laude  for  special 
distinction  in  scholarship.  There  were  the  courses 
for  Honors,  in  Classics,  Mathematics,  Modern 
Languages,  and  Science ;  and  students  doing  suit- 
able work  in  them  could  be  recommended  for  the 
degree.  These  elective  courses  made  a  good  showing 
on  paper ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  possible  to  com- 
plete  them   by  a   minimum  of  study.     There   were 

7G 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

also  courses  in  Music  and  Art,  extending  over  a 
period  of  five  years  instead  of  the  ordinary  four 
allotted  to  the  General  Course.  Under  Miss  Free- 
man, the  courses  for  Honors  disappeared,  and  instead 
of  the  General  Course  there  were  substituted  the 
Classical  Course,  with  Greek  as  an  entrance  require- 
ment and  the  degree  of  B.A.  as  its  goal ;  and  the 
Scientific  Course,  in  which  knowledge  of  French  or 
German  was  substituted  for  Greek  at  entrance,  and 
Mathematics  was  required  through  the  sophomore 
year.  The  student  who  completed  this  course 
received  the  degree  of  B.S. 

The  "new  curriculum"  substituted  for  the  two 
courses,  Classical  and  Scientific,  hitherto  offered,  a 
single  course  leading  to  the  degree  of  B.A.  As  Miss 
Shafer  explains  in  her  report  to  the  trustees  for 
the  year  1 892-1 893  :  "Thus  we  cease  to  confer  the 
B.S.  for  a  course  not  essentially  scientific,  and 
incapable  of  becoming  scientific  under  existing 
circumstances,  and  we  offer  a  course  broad  and 
strong,  containing,  as  we  believe,  all  the  elements, 
educational  and  disciplinary,  which  should  pertain 
to  a  course  in  liberal  arts." 

Further  modifications  of  the  elective  system 
were  introduced  in  a  later  administration,  but  the 
"new  curriculum"  continues  to  be  the  basis  of 
\\  ellcsley's  academic  instruction. 

77 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Time  and  labor  were  required  to  bring  about 
these  readjustments.  The  requirements  for  ad- 
mission had  to  be  altered  to  correspond  with  the 
new  system,  and  the  Academic  Council  spent  three 
years  in  perfecting  the  curriculum  in  its  new  form. 

Miss  Shafer's  own  department,  Mathematics, 
had  already  been  brought  up  to  a  very  high  stand- 
ard, and  at  one  time  the  requirements  for  ad- 
mission to  Wellesley  were  higher  in  Mathematics 
than  those  for  Harvard.  Under  Miss  Shafer  also, 
the  work  in  English  Composition  was  placed  on  a 
new  basis  ;  elective  courses  were  offered  to  seniors 
and  juniors  in  the  Bible  Department;  a  course  in 
Pedagogy,  begun  toward  the  end  of  Miss  Freeman's 
presidency,  was  encouraged  and  increased ;  the 
laboratory  of  Physiological  Psychology,  the  first  in 
a  woman's  college  and  one  of  the  earliest  in  any 
college,  was  opened  in  1 891  with  Professor  Calkins 
at  its  head.  In  all,  sixty-seven  new  courses  were 
opened  to  the  students  in  these  five  years.  The 
Academic  Council,  besides  revising  the  under- 
graduate curriculum,  also  revised  its  rules  gov- 
erning the  work  of  candidates  for  the  Master's 
degree. 

But  the  "new  curriculum"  is  not  the  only  achieve- 
ment for  which  Wellesley  honors  Miss  Shafer.  In 
June,    1892,  she  recommended  to  the  trustees   that 

78 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

the  alumnae  be  represented  upon  the  board,  and  the 
recommendation  was  accepted  and  acted  upon  by 
the  trustees.  In  1914,  about  one  fifth  of  the  trustees 
were  alumnae. 

Professor  Burrell,  Miss  Shafer's  student,  and  later 
her  colleague  in  the  Department  of  Mathematics, 
says  : 

"From  the  first  she  felt  a  genuine  interest  in  all 
sides  of  the  social  life  of  the  students,  sympathized 
with  their  ambitions  and  understood  the  bearing 
of  them  on  the  development  of  the  right  spirit  in 
the  college."  And  the  members  of  the  Greek 
letter  societies  bear  her  in  especial  remembrance, 
for  it  was  she  who  aided  in  the  reestablishing  in 
1889  of  the  societies  Phi  Sigma  and  Zeta  Alpha, 
which  had  been  suppressed  in  1880,  ujider  Miss 
Howard.  In  1889  also  the  Art  Society,  later  known 
as  Tau  Zeta  Epsilon,  was  founded;  in  1891,  the 
Agora,  the  political  society,  came  into  being,  and 
1892  saw  the  beginnings  of  Alpha  Kappa  Chi,  the 
classical  society.  Miss  Shafer  also  approved  and 
fostered  the  department  clubs  which  began  to  be 
formed  at  this  time.  And  to  her  wise  and  sym- 
pathetic assistance  we  owe  the  beginnings  of  the 
college  periodicals,  —  the  old  Courant,  of  1888,  the 
Prelude,  which  began  in  1889,  and  the  first  senior 
annual,  the  Lcgenda  of  1889. 

79 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

The  old  boarding-school  type  of  discipline  which 
had  flourished  under  Miss  Howard,  and  lingered 
fitfully  under  Miss  Freeman,  gave  place  in  Miss 
Shafer's  day  to  a  system  of  cuts  and  excuses  which 
although  very  far  from  the  self-government  of  the 
present  day,  still  fostered  and  respected  the  dignity 
of  the  students.  At  the  beginning  of  the  academic 
year  1890-1891,  attendance  at  prayers  in  chapel  on 
Sunday  evening  and  Monday  morning  was  made 
optional.  In  this  year  also,  seniors  were  given 
"with  necessary  restrictions,  the  privilege  of  leaving 
college,  or  the  town,  at  their  own  discretion,  when- 
ever such  absence  did  not  take  them  from  their 
college  duties."  On  September  12,  1893,  the  seniors 
began  to  wear  the  cap  and  gown  throughout  the  year. 

Other  notable  events  of  these  five  years  were  the 
opening  of  the  Faculty  Parlor  on  Monday,  Sep- 
tember 24,  1888,  another  of  the  gifts  of  Professor 
Horsford,  its  gold  and  garlands  now  vanished  never 
to  return ;  the  dedication  of  the  Farnsworth  Art 
Building  on  October  3,  1889,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Isaac 
D.  Farnsworth,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Durant ;  the  presen- 
tation in  this  same  year,  by  Mr.  Stetson,  of  the 
Amos  \Y.  Stetson  collection  of  paintings  ;  the  opening, 
also  in  1889,  of  Wood  Cottage,  a  dormitory  built  by 
Mrs.  Caroline  A.  Wood ;  the  gift  of  a  boathouse 
from    the    students,    in     1893;     and    on    Saturday, 

80 


l''ani«.\\oi-tli    Ait    Hi 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

January  28,  1893,  the  opening  of  the  college  post 
office.  We  learn,  through  the  president's  report 
for  1 892-1 893,  that  during  this  year  four  professors 
and  one  instructor  were  called  to  fill  professorships 
in  other  colleges  and  universities,  with  double  the 
salary  which  they  were  then  receiving,  but  all  pre- 
ferred to  remain  at  Wellesley. 

This  custom  of  printing  an  annual  report  to  the 
trustees  may  also  be  said  to  have  been  inaugurated 
by  Miss  Shafer.  It  is  true  that  Miss  Freeman  had 
printed  one  such  report  at  the  close  of  her  first  year, 
but  not  again.  Miss  Shafer's  clear  and  dignified 
presentations  of  events  and  conditions  are  models 
of  their  kind  ;  they  set  the  standard  which  her  suc- 
cessors have  followed. 

Of  Miss  Shafer's  early  preparation  for  her  work 
we  have  but  few  details.  She  was  born  in  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  on  September  23,  1839,  and  her  father 
was  a  clergyman  of  the  Congregational  church,  of 
mingled  Scotch  and  German  descent.  Her  parents 
moved  out  to  Oberlin  when  she  was  still  a  young 
girl,  and  she  entered  the  college  and  was  graduated 
in  1863.  The  Reverend  Frederick  D.  Allen  of 
Boston,  who  was  a  classmate  of  Miss  Shafer's,  tells 
us  that  there  were  two  courses  at  Oberlin  in  that 
day,  the  regular  college  course  and  a  parallel, 
four  years'  course  for  young  women.      It  seems  that 

81 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

women  were  also  admitted  to  the  college  course, 
but  only  a  few  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege, 
and  Miss  Shafer  was  not  one  of  these.  But  Mr. 
Allen  remembers  her  as  "an  excellent  student,  cer- 
tainly the  best  among  the  women  of  her  class." 

After  graduating  from  Oberlin,  she  taught  two 
years  in  New  Jersey,  and  then  in  the  Olive  Street 
High  School  in  St.  Louis  for  ten  years,  "laying  the 
foundation  of  her  distinguished  reputation  as  a 
teacher  of  higher  mathematics."  Doctor  William 
T.  Harris,  then  superintendent  of  public  schools  in 
St.  Louis,  and  afterwards  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  commended  her  very  highly ; 
and  her  old  students  at  Wellesley  witness  with  en- 
thusiasm to  her  remarkable  powers  as  a  teacher. 
President  Pendleton,  who  was  one  of  those  old  stu- 
dents, says  : 

"Doubtless  there  was  no  one  of  these  who  did  not 
receive  the  news  of  her  appointment  as  president 
with  something  of  regret.  Xo  one  probably  doubted 
the  wisdom  of  the  choice,  but  all  were  unwilling 
that  the  inspiration  of  Miss  Shafer's  teaching  should 
be  lost  to  the  future  Wellesley  students.  Her 
record  as  president  leaves  unquestioned  her  power 
in  administrative  work,  yet  all  her  students,  I 
believe,  would  say  that  Miss  Shafer  was  preemi- 
nently a  teacher. 

82 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

"It  was  my  privilege  to  be  one  of  a  class  of  ten 
or  more  students  who,  during  the  last  two  years 
of  their  college  life  (i  884-1 886)  elected  Miss  Shafer's 
course  in  Mathematics.  It  is  difficult  to  give  ade- 
quate expression  to  the  impression  which  Miss 
Shafer  made  as  a  teacher.  There  was  a  friendly 
graciousness  in  her  manner  of  meeting  a  class  which 
established  at  once  a  feeling  of  sympathy  between 
student  and  teacher.  .  .  .  She  taught  us  to  aim  at 
clearness  of  thought  and  elegance  of  method  ;  in  short, 
to  attempt  to  give  to  our  work  a  certain  finish  which 
belongs  only  to  the  scholar.  .  .  .  I  believe  that  it  has 
often  been  the  experience  of  a  Wellesley  girl,  that 
once  on  her  feet  in  Miss  Shafer's  classroom,  she 
has  surprised  herself  by  treating  a  subject  more 
clearly  than  she  would  have  thought  possible  before 
the  recitation.  The  explanation  of  this,  I  think, 
lay  in  the  fact  that  Miss  Shafer  inspired  her  students 
with  her  own  confidence  in  their  intellectual  powers." 

When  we  realize  that  during  the  last  ten  years 
of  her  life  she  was  fighting  tuberculosis,  and  in  a 
state  of  health  which,  for  the  ordinal'}"  woman, 
would  have  justified  an  invalid  existence,  we  appre- 
ciate more  fully  her  indomitable  will  and  selfless- 
ness. During  the  winter  of  1 890-1 891,  she  was 
obliged  to  spend  some  months  in  Thomasville, 
Georgia,  and  in  her  absence  the  duties  of  her  office 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

devolved  upon  Professor  Frances  E.  Lord,  the  head 
of  the  Department  of  Latin,  whose  sympathetic 
understanding  of  Miss  Shafer's  ideals  enabled  her 
to  carry  through  the  difficult  year  with  signal  suc- 
cess. Miss  Shafer  rallied  in  the  mild  climate,  and 
probably  her  life  would  have  been  prolonged  if  she 
had  chosen  to  retire  from  the  college ;  but  her  whole 
heart  was  in  her  work,  and  undoubtedly  if  she  had 
known  that  her  coming  back  to  Wellesley  meant 
only  two  more  years  of  life  on  earth,  she  would  still 
have  chosen  to  return. 

Miss  Shafer  had  no  surface  qualities,  although 
her  friends  knew  well  the  keen  sense  of  humor 
which  hid  beneath  that  grave  and  rather  awkward 
exterior.  But  when  the  alumnae  who  knew  her 
speak  of  her,  the  words  that  rise  to  their  lips  are 
justice,  integrity,  sympathy.  She  was  an  honorary 
member  of  the  class  of  1891,  and  on  December  8, 
1902,  her  portrait,  painted  by  Kenyon  Cox,  was 
presented  to  the  college  by  the  Alumnae  Association. 

Miss  Shafer's  academic  degrees  were  from  Oberlin, 
the  M.A.  in  1877  and  the  LL.D.  in  1893. 

Mrs.  Caroline  Williamson  Montgomery  (Welles- 
ley,  '89),  in  a  memorial  sketch  written  for  the  '94 
Legenda  says:  "I  have  yet  to  find  the  Wellesley 
student  who  could  not  and  would  not  say,  'I  can 
always    feel    sure    of    the  fairness    of   Miss    Shafer's 

84 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

decision.'  Again  and  again  have  Welleslcy  students 
said,  'She  treats  us  like  women,  and  knows  that  we 
are  reasoning  beings.'  Often  she  has  said,  'I  feel 
that  one  of  Wellesley's  strongest  points  is  in  her 
alumnae.'  And  once  more,  because  of  this  confi- 
dence, the  alumnae,  as  when  students,  were  spurred 
to  do  their  best,  were  filled  with  loyalty  for  their 
alma  mater.  ...  If  I  should  try  to  formulate  an 
expression  of  that  life  in  brief,  I  should  say  that  in 
her  relation  to  the  students  there  was  perfect  just- 
ness ;  as  regards  her  own  position,  a  passion  for 
duty ;  as  regards  her  character,  simplicity,  sin- 
cerity, and  selflessness." 

For  more  than  sixteen  years,  from  1877,  when  she 
came  to  the  college  as  head  of  the  Department  of 
Mathematics,  to  January  20,  1894,  when  she  died, 
its  president,  she  served  Wellcsley  with  all  her 
strength,  and  the  college  remains  forever  indebted 
to  her  high  standards  and  wise  leadership. 

IV 

In  choosing  Mrs.  Irvine  to  succeed  Miss  Shafer 
as  president  of  Wellcsley,  the  trustees  abandoned 
the  policy  which  had  governed  their  earlier  choices. 
Miss  Freeman  and  Miss  Shafer  had  been  connected 
with  the  college  almost  from  the  beginning.  They 
had  known  its  problems  only  from  the  inside.     Mrs. 

85 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

Irvine  was,  by  comparison,  a  newcomer ;  she  had 
entered  the  Department  of  Greek  as  junior  professor 
in  1890.  But  almost  at  once  her  unusual  personality 
made  its  impression,  and  in  the  four  years  preceding 
her  election  to  the  presidency,  she  had  arisen,  as  it 
were  in  spite  of  herself,  to  a  position  of  power  both 
in  the  classroom  and  in  the  Academic  Council.  As 
an  outsider,  her  criticism,  both  constructive  and 
destructive,  was  peculiarly  stimulating  and  valu- 
able ;  and  even  those  who  resented  her  intrusion 
could  not  but  recognize  the  noble  disinterestedness 
of  her  ideal  for  Wellesley. 

The  trustees  were  quick  to  perceive  the  value  to 
the  college  of  this  unusual  combination  of  devotion 
and  clearsightedness,  detachment  and  loving  service. 
They  also  realized  that  the  junior  professor  of  Greek 
was  especially  well  fitted  to  complete  and  perfect 
the  curriculum  which  Miss  Shafer  had  so  ably  in- 
augurated. For  Airs.  Irvine  was  before  all  else  a 
scholar,  with  a  scholar's  passion  for  rectitude  and 
high  excellence  in  intellectual  standards. 

Julia  Josephine  (Thomas)  Irvine,  the  daughter 
of  Owen  Thomas  and  Mary  Frame  (Myers) 
Thomas,  was  born  at  Salem,  Ohio,  November  9, 
1848.  Her  grandparents,  strong  abolitionists,  are 
said  to  have  moved  to  the  middle  west  from  the 
south   because   they  became   unwilling  to  live   in   a 

SO 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

slave  state.  Mrs.  Irvine's  mother  was  the  first 
woman  physician  west  of  the  Alleghenies,  and  her 
mother's  sister  also  studied  medicine.  Mrs.  Irvine's 
student  life  began  at  Antioch  College,  Ohio,  but 
later  she  entered  Cornell  University,  receiving  her 
bachelor's  degree  in  1875.  In  the  same  year  she 
was  married  to  Charles  James  Irvine.  In  1876, 
Cornell  gave  her  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 
After  her  husband's  death  in  1886,  Mrs.  Irvine 
entered  upon  her  career  as  a  teacher,  and  in  1890 
came  to  Wellesley,  where  her  success  in  the  class- 
room was  immediate.  Students  of  those  days  will 
never  forget  the  vitality  of  her  teaching,  the  en- 
thusiasm for  study  which  pervaded  her  classes. 
Wellesley  has  had  her  share  of  inspiring  teachers, 
and  among  these  Mrs.  Irvine  was  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  most  brilliant. 

The  new  president  assumed  her  office  reluctantly, 
and  with  the  understanding  that  she  should  be 
allowed  to  retire  after  a  brief  term  of  years,  when 
"the  exigencies  which  suggested  her  appointment 
had  ceased  to  exist."  She  knew  the  college,  and 
she  knew  herself.  With  certain  aspects  of  the 
Wellesley  life  she  could  never  be  entirely  in  accord. 
She  was  a  Hicksite  Quaker.  The  Wellesley  of  the 
decade  1 890-1 900  had  moved  a  long  way  from  the 
evangelical  revivalism  which  had  been  Mr.  Durant's 

87 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

idea  of  religion,  but  it  was  not  until  191 2  that  the 
Quaker  students  first  began  to  hold  their  weekly 
meetings  in  the  Observatory.  About  this  time  also, 
through  the  kind  offices  of  the  Wellesley  College 
Christian  Association,  a  list  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
students  then  in  college  was  given  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  parish  priest.  That  the  trustees  in  1895 
were  willing  to  trust  the  leadership  of  the  college  to 
a  woman  whose  religious  convictions  differed  so 
widely  from  those  of  the  founder  indicates  that  even 
then  Wellesley  was  beginning  to  outgrow  her  re- 
ligious provincialism,  and  to  recognize  that  a  wise 
tolerance  is  not  incompatible  with  steadfast  Christian 
witness. 

The  religious  services  which  Mrs.  Irvine,  in  her 
official  capacity,  conducted  for  the  college  were  im- 
pressive by  their  simplicity  and  distinction.  An 
alumna  of  1897  writes  :  "That  commanding  figure 
behind  the  reading-desk  of  the  old  chapel  in  College 
Hall  made  every  one,  in  those  days,  rejoice  when 
she  was  to  lead  the  morning  service."  But  the 
trustees,  anxious  to  set  her  free  for  the  academic 
side  of  her  work,  which  now  demanded  the  whole 
of  her  time,  appointed  a  dean  to  relieve  her  of  such 
other  duties  as  she  desired  to  delegate  to  another. 
This  action  was  made  possible  by  amendment  of 
the    statutes,    adopted    November    1,    1894,    and    in 

88 


PRESIDENTS   AND   THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

1895,  Miss  Margaret  E.  Stratton,  professor  of  the 
Department  of  Rhetoric,  as  it  was  then  called,  was 
appointed  the  first  dean  of  the  college. 

The  trustees  did  not  define  the  precise  nature  of 
the  relation  between  the  president  and  the  dean, 
but  left  these  officers  to  make  such  division  of  work 
as  should  seem  to  them  best,  and  we  read  in  Mrs. 
Irvine's  report  for  1895  that,  "For  the  present  the 
Dean  remains  in  charge  of  all  that  relates  to  the 
public  devotional  exercises  of  the  college,  and  is 
chairman  of  the  committee  in  charge  of  stated  re- 
ligious services.  She  is  the  authority  referred  to  in 
all  cases  of  ordinary  discipline,  and  is  the  chairman 
of  the  committee  which  includes  heads  of  houses 
and  permission  officers,  all  these  officers  are  directly 
responsible  to  her." 

Regarded  from  an  intellectual  and  academic 
point  of  view,  the  administrations  of  Miss  Shafer 
and  Mrs.  Irvine  are  a  unit.  Mrs.  Irvine  developed 
and  perfected  the  policy  which  Miss  Shafer  had 
initiated  and  outlined.  By  1895,  all  students  were 
working  under  the  new  curriculum,  and  in  the 
succeeding  years  the  details  of  readjustment  were 
finally  completed.  To  carry  out  the  necessary 
changes  in  the  courses  of  study,  certain  other 
changes  were  also  necessary;  methods  of  teaching 
which   were    advanced   for    the   '7o's   and   'So's   had 

S!) 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

been  superseded  in  the  '90's,  and  must  be  modified 
or  abandoned  for  Wellesley's  best  good.  To  all 
that  was  involved  in  this  ungrateful  task,  Mrs. 
Irvine  addressed  herself  with  a  courage  and  deter- 
mination not  fully  appreciated  at  the  time.  She 
had  not  Mrs.  Palmer's  skill  in  conveying  unwelcome 
fact  into  a  resisting  mind  without  irritation ;  neither 
had  she  Miss  Shafer's  self-effacing,  sympathetic 
patience.  Her  handling  of  situations  and  individ- 
uals was  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call  masculine ; 
it  had,  as  the  French  say,  the  defects  of  its  qualities  ; 
but  the  general  result  was  tonic,  and  Wellesley's 
gratitude  to  this  firm  and  far-seeing  administrator 
increases  with  the  passing  of  years. 

In  November,  1895,  the  Board  of  Trustees  ap- 
pointed a  special  committee  on  the  schools  of  Music 
and  Art,  in  order  to  reorganize  the  instruction  in 
these  subjects,  and  as  a  result  the  fine  arts  and 
music  were  put  upon  the  same  footing  and  made 
regular  electives  in  the  academic  course,  counting 
for  a  degree.  The  heads  of  these  departments  were 
made  members  of  the  Academic  Council  and  the 
terms  School  of  Music  and  School  of  Art  were 
dropped  from  the  calendar.  In  1896,  the  title 
Director  of  School  of  Music  was  changed  to  Profes- 
sor of  Music.  These  changes  are  the  more  signifi- 
cant, coming  at  this  time,  in  the  witness  which  they 

90 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

bear  to  the  breadth  and  elasticity  of  Mrs.  Irvine's 
academic  ideal.  A  narrower  scholasticism  would 
not  have  tolerated  them,  much  less  pressed  for  their 
adoption.  Wellesley  is  one  of  the  earliest  of  the 
colleges  to  place  the  fine  arts  and  music  on  her  list 
of  electives  counting  for  an  academic  degree. 

During  the  year  1 895-1 896,  the  Academic  Coun- 
cil reviewed  its  rules  of  procedure  relating  to  the 
maintenance  of  scholarship  throughout  the  course, 
with  the  result  that,  "In  order  to  be  recommended 
for  the  degree  of  B.A.  a  student  must  pass  with 
credit  in  at  least  one  half  of  her  college  work  and  in 
at  least  one  half  of  the  work  of  the  senior  year." 
This  did  not  involve  raising  the  actual  standard  of 
graduation  as  reached  by  the  majority  of  recent 
graduates,  but  relieved  the  college  of  the  obligation 
of  giving  its  degree  to  a  student  whose  work  through- 
out a  large  part  of  her  course  did  not  rise  above  a 
mere   passing  grade. 

In  Mrs.  Irvine's  report  for  1 894-1 895,  we  read 
that,  "Modifications  have  been  made  in  the  general 
regulations  of  the  college  by  which  the  observation 
of  a  set  period  of  silent  time  for  all  persons  is  no 
longer  required."  In  the  beginning,  Mr.  Durant 
had  established  two  daily  periods  of  twenty  minutes 
each,  during  which  students  were  required  to  be  in 
their  rooms,  silent,  in  order  that  those  who  so  de- 

!)1 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

sired  might  give  themselves  to  meditation,  prayer, 
and  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  Morning  and 
evening,  for  fifteen  years,  the  "Silent  Bell"  rang, 
and  the  college  houses  were  hushed  in  literal  silence. 
In  1889  or  1890,  the  morning  interval  was  discon- 
tinued, but  evening  "silent  time"  was  not  done 
away  with  until  1894,  nineteen  years  after  its  estab- 
lishment, and  there  are  many  who  regret  its  pass- 
ing, and  who  realize  that  it  was  one  of  the  wisest 
and,  in  a  certain  sense,  most  advanced  measures 
instituted  by  Mr.  Durant.  But  it  was  a  despotic 
measure,  and  therefore  better  allowed  to  lapse ;  for 
to  the  student  mind,  especially  of  the  late  '8o's  and 
early  '90's,  it  was  an  attempt  to  fetter  thought,  to 
force  religion  upon  free  individuals,  to  prescribe 
times  and  seasons  for  spiritual  exercises  in  which 
the  founder  of  the  college  had  no  right  to  concern 
himself.  As  Wellesley's  understanding  of  democ- 
racy developed,  the  faculty  realized  that  a  rule  of 
this  kind,  however  wise  in  itself,  cannot  be  im- 
pressed from  without ;  the  demand  for  it  must  come 
from  the  students  themselves.  Whether  that  de- 
mand will  ever  be  made  is  a  question ;  but  un- 
doubtedly there  is  an  increasing  realization  in  the 
college  world  of  the  need  of  systematized  daily  res- 
pite of  some  sort  from  the  pressure  of  unmitigated 
external  activity  ;    the  need  of  freedom  for  spiritual 

92 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

recollection  in  the  midst  of  academic  and  social 
business.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  Student  Gov- 
ernment Association  would  have  entire  freedom  of 

jurisdiction. 

In  1896,  Domestic  Work  was  discontinued.  This 
was  a  revolutionary  change,  for  Mr.  Durant  had 
believed  strongly  in  the  value  of  this  one  hour  a  day 
of  housework  to  promote  democratic  feeling  among 
students  of  differing  grades  of  wealth  ;  and  he  had 
also  felt  that  it  made  the  college  course  cheaper, 
and  therefore  put  its  advantages  within  the  reach 
of  the  "calico  girls",  as  he  was  so  fond  of  calling  the 
students  who  had  little  money  to  spend.  But  do- 
mestic work,  even  in  the  early  days,  as  we  see  from 
Miss  Stilwell's  letters,  soon  included  more  than 
the  washing  of  dishes  and  sweeping  of  corridors. 
Every  department  had  its  domestic  girls,  whose 
duties  ranged  from  those  of  incipient  secretary  to 
general  chore  girl.  The  experience  in  setting  college 
dinner  tables  or  sweeping  college  recitation  rooms 
counted  for  next  to  nothing  in  equipping  a  student 
to  care  for  her  own  home  ;  and  the  benefit  to  the 
''calico  girls"  was  no  longer  obvious,  as  the  price  of 
tuition  had  now  been  raised  several  times.  In  May, 
1894,  the  Academic  Council  voted  "that  the  council 
respectfully  make  known  to  the  trustees  that  in 
their  opinion  domestic  work  is  a  serious  hindrance 

93 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

to  the  progress  of  the  college,  and  should  as  soon  as 
possible  be  done  away."  But  it  was  not  until  the 
trustees  found  that  the  fees  for  1 896-1 897  must  be 
raised,  that  they  decided  to  abolish  domestic  work. 
Miss  Shackford,  in  her  pamphlet  on  College  Hall, 
describes,  "for  the  benefit  of  those  unfamiliar  with 
the  old  regime,"  the  system  of  domestic  work  as  it 
obtained  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  Wellesley's 
life.  She  tells  us  that  it  "brought  all  students  into 
close  relation  with  kitchens,  pantries  and  dining- 
room,  with  brooms,  dusters  and  other  household 
utensils.  Sweeping,  dusting,  distributing  the  mail 
at  the  various  rooms,  and  clerical  work  were  the 
favorite  employments,  although  it  is  said  the  stu- 
dents always  showed  great  generosity  in  allowing  the 
girls  less  strong  to  have  the  lighter  tasks.  Sweep- 
ing the  matting  in  the  center  of  the  corridor  before 
breakfast,  or  sweeping  the  bare  'sides'  of  this  mat- 
ting after  breakfast,  were  tasks  that  developed  into 
sinecures.  The  girl  who  went  with  long-handled 
feather  duster  to  dust  the  statuary  enjoyed  a  dis- 
tinction equal  to  Don  Quixote's  in  tilting  at  wind- 
mills. Filling  the  student-lamps,  serving  in  a  de- 
partment where  clerical  work  was  to  be  done,  or, 
as  in  science,  where  materials  and  specimens  had  to 
be  prepared,  were  on  the  list  of  possibilities.  Sopho- 
mores   in   long   aprons    washed    beakers    and    slides, 

<)4 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

seniors  in  cap  and  gown  acted  as  guides  to  guests. 
A  group  of  girls  from  each  table  changed  the  courses 
at  meals.  Upon  one  devolved  the  task  of  washing 
whatever  silver  was  required  for  the  next  course. 
Another  went  out  through  the  passage  into  the  room 
where  heaters  kept  the  meat  and  vegetables  warm 
in  their  several  dishes.  Perhaps  another  went 
further  on  to  the  bread-room,  where  she  might  even 
be  permitted  to  cut  bread  with  the  bread-cutting 
machine.  Dessert  was  always  kept  in  the  remote 
apartment  where  Dominick  Duckett  presided,  strum- 
ming a  guitar,  while  his  black  face  had  a  portentous 
gravity  as  he  assigned  the  desserts  for  each  table. 
What  an  ordeal  it  was  for  shy  freshmen  to  rise 
and  walk  the  length  of  the  dining-room !  How 
many  tables  were  kept  waiting  for  the  next  course 
while  errant  students  surveyed  the  sunset  through 
the  kitchen  windows  !  Some  of  us  remember  the 
tragic  moments  when,  coming  in  hot  and  tired  from 
crew  practice,  we  found  on  the  bulletin-board  by 
the  dining-room  the  fateful  words,  'strawberries  for 
dinner',  and  we  knew  it  was  our  lot  to  prepare  them 
for  the  table.'" 

Other  important  changes  in  the  college  regula- 
tions were  the  opening  of  the  college  library  on 
Sunday  as  a  reading-room,  and  the  removal  of  the 
ban   upon   the   theater   and   the   opera ;     both   these 

95 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

changes  took  place  in  1895.  On  February  6,  1896, 
the  clause  of  the  statutes  concerning  attendance  at 
Sunday  service  in  chapel  was  amended  to  read, 
"All  students  are  expected  to  attend  this  or  some 
other  public  religious  service." 

In  1 896-1 897,  Bible  Study  was  organized  into  a 
definite  Department  of  Biblical  History,  Literature, 
and  Interpretation ;  and  in  the  same  year  volun- 
tary classes  for  Bible  Study  were  inaugurated  by  the 
Christian  Association  and  taught  by  the  students. 

The  first  step  toward  informing  the  students 
concerning  their  marks  and  academic  standing  was 
taken  in  1897,  when  the  so-called  "credit-notes" 
were  instituted,  in  which  students  were  told  whether 
or  not  they  had  achieved  Credit,  grade  C,  in  their 
individual  studies.  Mr.  Durant  had  feared  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  marks  would  arouse  unworthy  com- 
petition, but  his  fears  have  proved  unfounded. 

In  this  administration  also  the  financial  methods 
of  the  college  were  revised.  Mrs.  Irvine,  we  are 
reminded  by  Florence  S.  Marcy  Crofut,  of  the 
class  of  1897,  "established  a  system  of  management 
and  purchasing  into  which  all  the  halls  of  residence 
were  brought,  and  this  remains  almost  without 
change  to  the  present  day."  On  March  27,  1895, 
Mrs.  Durant  resigned  the  treasurership  of  the  col- 
lege, which  she  had  held  since  her  husband's  death, 

90 


PRESIDENTS   AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

and  upon  her  nomination,  Mr.  Alpheus  H.  Hardy 
was  elected  to  the  office.  In  1896,  the  trustees 
issued  a  report  in  which  they  informed  the  friends 
of  Wellesley  that  although  Mr.  Durant,  in  his  will, 
had  made  the  college  his  residuary  legatee,  subject 
to  a  life  tenancy,  the  personal  estate  had  suffered 
such  depreciation  and  loss  "as  to  render  this  pro- 
spective endowment  of  too  slight  consequence  to  be 
reckoned  on  in  any  plans  for  the  development  and 
maintenance  of  the  college."  At  this  time,  Welles- 
ley  was  in  debt  to  the  amount  of  #103,048.14. 
During  the  next  nineteen  years,  trustees  and  alumnae 
were  to  labor  incessantly  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
college  and  to  secure  an  endowment  fund.  What 
Wellesley  owes  to  the  unstinted  devotion  of  Mr. 
Hardy  during  these  lean  years  can  never  be  ade- 
quately expressed. 

The  buildings  erected  during  Mrs.  Irvine's  tenure 
of  office  were  few.  Fiske  Cottage  was  opened  in 
September,  1894,  for  the  use  of  students  who  wished 
to  work  their  way  through  college.  The  "cottage" 
had  been  originally  the  village  grammar  school, 
but  when  Mr.  Hunnewcll  gave  a  new  schoolhouse 
to  the  village,  the  college  was  able,  through  the 
generosity  of  Mrs.  Joseph  M.  Fiske,  Mr.  William  S. 
Houghton,  Mr.  Elisha  S.  Converse,  and  a  few  other 
friends,  to  move  the  old  schoolhouse  to  the  campus 

<)? 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

and  remodel  it  as  a  dormitory.  In  February,  1895, 
a  chemical  laboratory  was  built  under  Norumbega 
hill,  —  an  ugly  wooden  building,  a  distress  to  all 
who  care  for  Wellesley's  beauty,  and  an  unmistak- 
able witness  to  her  poverty. 

On  November  22,  1897,  the  corner  stone  of  the 
Houghton  Memorial  Chapel  was  laid,  a  building 
destined  to  be  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and 
beautiful  on  the  campus.  It  was  given  by  Miss 
Elizabeth  G.  Houghton  and  Mr.  Clement  S. 
Houghton  of  Cambridge  as  a  memorial  of  their 
father,  Mr.  William  S.  Houghton,  for  many  years  a 
trustee  of  the  college. 

In  1898  Mrs.  John  C.  Whitin,  a  trustee,  gave  to 
the  college  an  astronomical  observatory  and  tele- 
scope. The  building  was  completed  in  1900.  An- 
other gift  of  1898,  fifty  thousand  dollars,  came 
from  the  estate  of  the  late  Charles  T.  Wilder,  and 
was  used  to  build  Wilder  Hall,  the  fourth  dormitory 
in  the  group  on  Norumbega  hill.  In  1898,  the  first 
of  the  Society  houses,  the  Shakespeare  House,  was 
opened. 

On  November  4,  1897,  Mrs.  Irvine  presented 
before  the  Board  of  Trustees  a  review  of  the  history 
of  the  college  under  the  new  curriculum,  and  a 
statement  of  urgent  needs  which  had  arisen.  She 
closed    with    a    recommendation    that    her    term    of 

98 


PRESIDENTS   AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

office  should  end  in  June,  1898,  as  she  believed  that 
the  necessities  which  had  led  to  her  appointment 
no  longer  existed,  and  she  recognized  that  new  de- 
mands pressed,  which  she  was  not  fitted  to  meet. 
As  Mrs.  Irvine  had  stated  verbally,  both  to  the 
Board  of  Trustees  and  to  a  committee  appointed  by 
them  to  consider  her  recommendation,  that  she 
would  not  serve  under  a  permanent  appointment, 
the  committee  "was  limited  to  the  consideration  of 
the  time  at  which  that  recommendation  should  be- 
come operative."  They  asked  the  president  to 
change  her  time  of  withdrawal  to  June,  1899,  and 
she  consented  to  do  this,  with  the  provision  that 
she  was  to  be  released  from  her  duties  before  the 
end  of  the  year,  if  her  successor  were  read}'  to  as- 
sume the  duties  of  the  office  before  June,  1899. 

After  her  retirement  from  Wellesley,  Mrs.  Irvine 
made  her  home  in  the  south  of  France,  but  she  re- 
turned to  America  in  1912  to  be  present  at  the  in- 
auguration of  President  Pendleton.  And  in  the 
year  1913-1914,  after  the  death  of  Madame  Colin, 
she  performed  a  signal  service  for  the  college  in 
temporarily  assuming  the  direction  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  French.  Through  her  good  offices,  the  de- 
partment was  reorganized,  but  the  New  England 
winter  had  proved  too  severe  for  her  after  her  long 
sojourn    in    a    milder    climate,    and    in    191 4,    Mrs. 

99 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Irvine  returned  again  to  her  home  in  Southern 
France,  bearing  with  her  the  love  and  gratitude  of 
Wellesley  for  her  years  of  efficient  and  unselfish 
service.  During  the  war  of  1914-1915,  she  had 
charge  of  the  linen  room  in  the  military  hospital  at 
Aix-les-Bains. 

V 

On  March  8,  1899,  the  trustees  announced  their 
election  of  Wellesley's  fifth  president,  Caroline 
Hazard.  In  June,  Mrs.  Irvine  retired,  and  the  new 
administration  dates  from  July  1,  1899. 

Unlike  her  predecessors,  Miss  Hazard  brought 
to  her  office  no  technical  academic  training,  and 
no  experience  as  a  teacher.  Born  at  Peacedale, 
Rhode  Island,  June  10,  1856,  the  daughter  of  Row- 
land and  Margaret  (Rood)  Hazard,  and  the  descend- 
ant of  Thomas  Hazard,  the  founder  of  Rhode 
Island,  she  had  been  educated  by  tutors  and  in  a 
private  school  in  Providence,  and  later  had  carried 
on  her  studies  abroad.  Before  coming  to  Wellesley, 
she  had  already  won  her  own  place  in  the  annals  of 
Rhode  Island,  as  editor,  by  her  edition  of  the  philo- 
sophical and  economic  writings  of  her  grandfather, 
Rowland  G.  Hazard,  the  wealthy  woolen  manu- 
facturer of  Peacedale,  as  author,  through  a  study 
of  life   in   Xarragansett   in   the   eighteenth   century, 

100 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

entitled  "Thomas  Hazard,  Son  of  Robert,  called 
College  Tom",  and  as  poet,  in  a  volume  of  Xarra- 
gansett  ballads  and  a  number  of  religious  sonnets, 
followed  during  her  Wellesley  years  by  "A  Scallop 
Shell  of  Quiet",  verses  of  delicate  charm  and  dignity. 

Mrs.  Guild  has  said  that  Miss  Hazard  came, 
"bringing  the  ease  and  breadth  of  the  cultivated 
woman  of  the  world,  who  is  yet  an  idealist  and  a 
Christian,  into  an  atmosphere  perhaps  too  strictly 
scholastic."  But  she  also  brought,  unusual  execu- 
tive ability  and  training  in  administrative  affairs, 
both  academic  and  commercial,  for  her  father,  aside 
from  his  manufacturing  interests,  was  a  member  of 
the  corporation  of  Brown  University.  Hers  is  the 
type  of  intelligence  and  power  seen  often  in  Eng- 
land, where  women  of  her  social  position  have  an 
interest  in  large  issues  and  an  instinct  for  affairs, 
which  American  women  of  the  same  class  have  not 
evinced  in  any  arresting  degree. 

Miss  Hazard's  inauguration  took  place  on  Octo- 
ber 3,  1899,  in  the  new  Houghton  Memorial  Chapel, 
which  had  been  dedicated  on  June  I  of  that  year. 
This  was  \\  ellesley's  first  formal  ceremony  of  in- 
auguration, and  the  brilliant  academic  procession, 
moving  among  the  autumn  trees  between  old  Col- 
lege Hall  and  the  Chapel,  marked  the  beginning  of 
a  new  era  of  dignity  and  beauty  for  the  college.      In 

101 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

the  next  ten  years,  under  the  winning  encourage- 
ment of  her  new  president,  Wellesley  blossomed  in 
courtesy  and  in  all  those  social  graces  and  pleasant 
amenities  of  life  which  in  earlier  years  she  had  not 
always  cultivated  with  sufficient  zest.  All  of  Miss 
Hazard's  influence  went  out  to  the  dignifying  and 
beautifying  of  the  life  in  which  she  had  come  to  bear 
a  part. 

It  is  to  her  that  Wellesley  owes  the  tranquil 
beauty  of  the  morning  chapel  service.  The  vested 
choir  of  students,  the  order  of  service,  are  her  ideas, 
as  are  the  musical  vesper  services  and  festival  ves- 
pers of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Baccalaureate  Sun- 
day, which  Professor  Macdougall  developed  so  ably 
at  her  instigation.  By  her  efforts,  the  Chair  of 
Music  was  endowed  from  the  Billings  estate,  and  in 
December,  1903,  Mr.  Thomas  Minns,  the  surviving 
executor  of  the  estate,  presented  the  college  with  an 
additional  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  of  which  two 
thousand  dollars  were  set  aside  as  a  permanent  fund 
for  the  establishment  of  the  Billings  prize,  to  be 
awarded  by  the  president  for  excellence  in  music, 
—  including  its  theory  and  practice,  —  and  the  re- 
mainder was  used  toward  the  erection  of  Billings 
Hall,  a  second  music  building  containing  a  much- 
needed  concert  hall  and  classrooms,  completed  in 
1904. 

10-2 


: 


The    Wliit in    ()l)M-rvati 


PRESIDENTS   AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

Miss  Hazard's  love  of  simple,  poetical  ceremonial 
did  much  to  increase  the  charm  of  the  Wellesley  life. 
Of  the  several  hearth  fires  which  she  kindled  during 
the  years  when  she  kept  Wellesley's  fires  alight,  the 
Observatory  hearth-warming  was  perhaps  the  most 
charming.  The  beautiful  little  building,  given  and 
equipped  by  Mrs.  Whitin,  a  trustee  of  the  college, 
was  formally  opened  October  8,  1900,  with  addresses 
by  Miss  Hazard,  Professor  Pickering  of  Harvard, 
and  Professor  Todd  of  Amherst.  In  the  morning, 
Miss  Hazard  had  gone  out  into  the  college  woods 
and  plucked  bright  autumn  leaves  to  bind  into  a 
torch  of  life  to  light  the  fire  on  the  new  hearth. 
Digitalis,  sarsaparilla,  eupatorium,  she  had  chosen, 
for  the  health  of  the  body ;  a  fern  leaf  for  grace  and 
beauty ;  the  oak  and  the  elm  for  peace  and  the 
civic  virtues  ;  evergreen,  pine,  and  hemlock  for  the 
aspiring  life  of  the  mind  and  the  eternity  of  thought; 
rosemary  for  remembrance,  and  pansies  for  thoughts. 
Firing  the  torch,  she  said,  "With  these  holy  associa- 
tions we  light  this  fire,  that  from  this  building  in 
which  the  sun  and  stars  are  to  be  observed,  true 
life  may  ever  aspire  with  the  flame  to  the  Author 
of  all   light." 

Mrs.  Whitin  then  took  the  lighted  torch  and 
kindled  the  hearth  fire,  and  as  the  pleasant,  aro- 
matic   odor    spread    through    the    room,    the    college 

10.'} 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

choir  sang  the  hearth  song  which  Miss  Hazard  had 
written  for  the  occasion,  and  which  was  later  burned 
in  the  wooden  panel  above  the  hearth  : 

"Stars  above  that  shine  and  glow, 
Have  their  image  here  below ; 
Flames  that  from  the  earth  arise, 
Still  aspiring  seek  the  skies. 
Upward  with  the  flames  we  soar, 
Learning  ever  more  and  more ; 
Light  and  love  descend  till  we 
Heaven  reflected  here  shall  see." 

At  the  beginning  of  her  term  of  office,  Miss  Hazard 
had  requested  the  trustees  to  make  "a  division  of 
administrative  duties  somewhat  different  from  that 
before  existing,"  as  the  technical  knowledge  of 
courses  of  study  and  the  wisdom  to  advise  students 
as  to  such  courses  required  a  special  training  and 
preparation  which  she  did  not  possess.  It  was 
therefore  arranged  that  the  dean  should  take  in 
charge  the  more  strictly  academic  work,  leaving 
Miss  Hazard  free  for  "the  general  supervision  of 
affairs,  the  external  relations  of  the  college,  and  the 
home  administration,"  and  Professor  Coman  of  the 
Department  of  History  and  Economics  consented  to 
assume  the  duties  of  dean  for  a  year.  At  the  end 
of  the  year,  however,  Miss  Hazard  having  now  be- 
come thoroughly  familiar  with   the  financial  condi- 

104 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

tion  of  the  college,  felt  that  retrenchments  were 
necessary,  and  asked  the  trustees  to  omit  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  dean  for  the  year  1900-1901.  The 
academic  duties  of  the  dean  were  temporarily  as- 
sumed in  the  president's  office  by  the  secretary  of 
the  college,  Miss  Ellen  F.  Pendleton,  and  Professor 
Coman  returned  to  her  teaching  as  head  of  the  new 
Department  of  Economics,  an  office  which  she  held 
with  distinction  until  her  retirement  as  Professor 
Emeritus  in    191 3. 

Mrs.  Guild  reminds  us  that  "the  pressing  prob- 
lem which  confronted  Miss  Hazard  was  monetary. 
The  financial  history  of  Wellesley  College  would  be 
a  volume  in  itself,  as  those  familiar  with  the  struggles 
of  unendowed  institutions  of  like  order  can  well 
realize.  .  .  .  The  appointment  during  Mrs.  Irvine's 
administration  of  a  professional  treasurer,  and  the 
gradual  accumulation  of  small  endowments,  were 
helps  in  the  right  direction.  The  alumnae  had  early 
begun  a  series  of  concerted  efforts  to  aid  their 
Alma  Mater  in  solving  her  ever  present  financial 
problem.  Miss  Hazard,  in  generous  cooperation 
with  them  and  with  the  trustees,  did  especially 
valiant  work  in  clearing  the  college  from  its  burden 
of  debt;  and  during  her  administration  the 
treasurer's  report  shows  an  increase  in  the  college 
funds  of  #830,000."      In   round    numbers,    the   gifts 

105 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

for  endowments  and  buildings  during  the  period 
amounted  to  one  million  three  hundred  six  thousand 
dollars.  Eleven  buildings  were  erected  between  1900 
and  1909:  Wilder  Hall  and  the  Observatory  were 
completed  in  1900;  the  President's  House,  Miss 
Hazard's  gift,  in  1902;  Pomeroy  and  Billings  Hall 
in  1904;  Cazenove  in  1905;  the  Observatory  House, 
another  gift  from  Mrs.  Whitin,  1906;  Beebe,  1908; 
Shafer,  the  Gymnasium,  and  the  Library,  in  1909. 
During  these  years  also,  five  professorial  chairs 
were  partially  endowed.  The  Chair  of  Economics 
in  1903  ;  the  Chair  of  Biblical  History,  by  Helen 
Miller  Gould,  in  December,  1900,  to  be  called  after 
her  mother,  the  Helen  Day  Gould  Professorship ; 
the  Chair  of  Art,  under  the  name  of  the  Clara  Ber- 
tram Kimball  Professorship  of  Art ;  the  Chair  of 
Music,  from  the  Billings  estate ;  the  Chair  of 
Botany,  by  Mr.  H.  H.  Hunnewell,  January,  1901. 
And  in  1908  and  1909,  the  arrangements  with  the 
Boston  Normal  School  of  Gymnastics  were  com- 
pleted, by  which  that  school,  —  with  an  endowment 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  a  gymnasium 
erected  on  the  Wellesley  campus  through  the  efforts 
of  Miss  Am}'  Morris  Homans,  the  director,  and 
Wellesley  friends,  —  became  a  part  of  Wellesley  Col- 
lege :  the  Department  of  Hygiene  and  Physical 
Education. 

106 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

Among  the  notable  gifts  were  the  Alexandra 
Garden  in  the  West  Quadrangle,  given  by  an  alumna 
in  memory  of  her  little  daughter;  the  beautiful 
antique  marbles,  presented  by  Miss  Hannah  Parker 
Kimball  to  the  Department  of  Art,  in  memory  of 
her  brother,  M.  Day  Kimball ;  and  the  Plimpton 
collection  of  Italian  manuscripts  and  early  editions, 
given  by  George  A.  Plimpton  in  memory  of  his  wife, 
Frances  Taylor  Pearsons  Plimpton,  of  the  class  of 
'84.  Of  romances  of  chivalry,  "those  poems  of 
adventure,  the  sources  from  which  Boiardo  and 
Ariosto  borrowed  character  and  episodes  for  their 
great  poems,"  we  have,  according  to  Professor 
Margaret  Jackson,  their  curator,  perhaps  the  largest 
collection  in  this  country,  and  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  world.  Many  of  these  books  are  in  rare  or 
unique  editions.  Of  the  editions  of  I  543,  of  Boiardo's 
"Innamorato"  only  one  other  copy  is  known,  that 
in  the  Royal  Library  at  Stuttgart.  The  1527  edi- 
tion of  the  "Orlando  Furioso"  was  unknown  until 
1 82 1,  when  Count  Nilzi  described  the  copy  in  his 
collection.  Of  the  "Gigante  Moronte",  Wellesley 
has  an  absolutely  unique  copy.  A  thirteenth-cen- 
tury commentary  on  Peter  Lombard's  ''Sentences" 
has  marginal  notes  by  Tasso,  and  a  contemporary 
copy  of  Savonarola's  "Triumph  of  the  Cross" 
shows  on  the  title  page  a  woodcut  of  the  irate  vvrit- 

107 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

ing  in  his  cell.  Bembo's  "Asolini",  a  first  edition, 
contains  autograph  corrections.  In  191 2,  Welles- 
ley  had  the  unusual  opportunity,  which  she  un- 
selfishly embraced,  to  return  to  the  National  Library 
at  Florence,  Italy,  a  very  precious  Florentine  manu- 
script of  the  fourteenth  century,  containing  the 
only  known  copy  of  the  Sirventes  and  other  impor- 
tant historical  verses  of  Antonio  Pucci. 

The  most  important  change  in  the  college  life  at 
this  time  was  undoubtedly  the  establishment  of  the 
System  of  Student  Government,  in  1901.  As  a 
student  movement,  this  is  discussed  at  length  in  a 
later  chapter,  but  Miss  Hazard's  cordial  sympathy 
with  all  that  the  change  implied  should  be  recorded 
here. 

Among  academic  changes,  the  institution  of 
the  Honor  Scholarships  is  the  most  noteworthy. 
In  1 90 1,  two  classes  of  honors  for  juniors  and  seniors 
were  established,  the  Durant  Scholarship  and  the 
Wellesley  College  Scholarship,  —  the  Durant  being 
the  higher.  The  names  of  those  students  attaining 
a  certain  degree  of  excellence,  according  to  these 
standards,  are  annually  published  ;  the  honors  are 
non-competitive,  and  depend  upon  an  absolute 
standard  of  scholarship.  At  about  the  same 
time,  honorary  mention  for  freshmen  was  also 
instituted. 

108 


PRESIDENTS   AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

On  June  30,  1906,  Miss  Hazard  sailed  for  Genoa, 
to  take  a  well-earned  vacation.  This  was  the  first 
time  that  a  president  of  Wellesley  had  taken  a 
Sabbatical  year;  the  first  time  that  any  presidential 
term  had  extended  beyond  six  years.  During  Miss 
Hazard's  absence,  Miss  Pendleton,  who  had  been 
appointed  dean  in  1901,  conducted  the  affairs  of 
the  college.  On  her  return,  May  20,  1907,  Miss 
Hazard  was  met  at  the  Wellesley  station  by  the  dean 
and  the  senior  class,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
students,  and  was  escorted  to  the  campus  by  the 
presidents  of  the  Student  Government  Association 
and  the  senior  class.  The  whole  college  had  as- 
sembled to  welcome  her,  lining  the  avenue  from 
the  East  Lodge  to  Simpson,  and  waving  their 
loving  and  loyal  greetings.  It  was  a  touching 
little  ceremony,  witnessing  as  it  did  to  the  place 
she  held,  and  will  always  hold,  in  the  heart  of  the 
college. 

In  the  spring  of  1908  and  the  winter  of  1909, 
Miss  Hazard  was  obliged  to  be  absent,  because  of 
ill  health,  and  again  for  a  part  of  19 10.  In  July, 
1910,  the  trustees  announced  her  resignation  to  the 
faculty.  Xo  one  has  expressed  more  happily  Miss 
Hazard's  service  to  the  college  than  her  successor 
in  office,  the  friend  who  was  her  dean  and  comrade 
in    work    during    almost    her    entire    administration. 

109 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

In  the  dean's  report  for  1910  are  these  very  human 
and  loving  words  : 

"President  Hazard's  great  service  to  the  college 
during  her  eleven  years  of  office  are  evident  to  all 
in  the  way  of  increased  endowment,  new  buildings, 
additional  departments  and  officers,  advanced 
salaries,  improved  organization  and  equipment ; 
but  those  who  have  had  the  privilege  of  working 
with  her  know  that  even  these  gains,  to  which 
her  personal  generosity  so  largely  contributed, 
are  less  than  the  gifts  of  character  which  have 
brought  into  the  midst  of  our  busy  routine  the 
graces  of  home  and  a  far-pervading  spirit  of  loving 
kindness. 

"Miss  Hazard  came  to  us  a  stranger,  but  by  her 
gracious  bearing  and  charming  hospitality,  by  her 
sympathetic  interest  and  eagerness  to  aid  in  the 
work  of  every  department,  together  with  a  scrupu- 
lous respect  for  what  she  was  pleased  to  call  the 
expert  judgment  of  those  in  charge,  by  the  touches 
of  beauty  and  gentleness  accompanying  all  that  she 
did,  from  the  enrichment  of  our  chapel  service  to 
the  planting  of  our  campus  with  daffodils,  and  by 
the  essential  consecration  of  her  life,  she  has  so 
endeared  herself  to  her  faculty  that  her  resignation 
means  to  us  not  only  the  loss  of  an  honored  presi- 
dent, but  the  absence  of  a  friend." 

110 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

Miss  Hazard's  honorary  degrees  are  the  A.M. 
from  Michigan  and  the  Litt.D.  from  Brown  Uni- 
versity. She  is  also  an  honorary  member  of  the  Eta 
chapter  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  which  was  installed  at 
Wellesley  on  January  17,  1905. 

VI 

On  Thursday,  October  19,  191 1,  Ellen  Fitz  Pen- 
dleton was  inaugurated  president  of  Wellesley 
College  in  Houghton  Memorial  Chapel. 

Professor  Calkins,  writing  in  the  College  Nezvs  in 
regard  to  this  wise  choice  of  the  trustees,  says  : 
"There  has  been  some  discussion  of  the  wisdom  of 
appointing  a  woman  as  college  president.  I  may 
frankly  avow  myself  as  one  of  those  who  have  been 
little  concerned  for  the  appointment  of  a  woman 
as  such.  On  general  principles,  I  would  welcome 
the  appointment  of  a  man  as  the  next  president  of 
Bryn  Mawr  or  Wellesley ;  and,  similarly,  I  would 
as  soon  see  a  woman  at  the  head  of  \  assar  or  of 
Smith.  But  if  our  trustees,  when  looking  last  year 
for  a  successor  to  Miss  Hazard  in  her  eminently 
successful  administration,  had  rejected  the  ideally 
endowed  candidate,  solely  because  she  was  a  woman, 
they  would  have  indicated  their  belief  that  a  woman 
is  unfitted  for  high  administrative  work.  The  re- 
cent history  of  our  colleges   is  a   refutation  of  this 

111 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

conclusion.  The  responsible  corporation  of  a 
woman's  college  cannot  possibly  take  the  ground  that 
'  any  man  '  is  to  be  preferred  to  the  rightly  equipped 
woman  ;  to  quote  from  The  Nation,  in  its  issue  of 
June  22,  191 1,  'If  Wellesley,  after  its  long  tradition 
of  women  presidents,  and  able  women  presidents, 
had  turned  from  the  appointment  of  a  woman, 
especially  when  a  highly  capable  successor  was  at 
hand,  the  decision  would  have  meant  .  .  .  the  adop- 
tion of  the  principle  of  the  ineligibility  of  women  for 
the  college  presidency.  ...  It  is  an  anomaly  that 
women  should  be  permitted  to  enter  upon  an  intel- 
lectual career  and  should  not  be  permitted  to  look 
forward  to  the  natural  rewards  of  successful  labor." 

Professor  Calkins's  personal  tribute  to  Miss  Pen- 
dleton's power  and  personality  is  especially  gracious 
and  deserving  of  quotation,  coming  as  it  does  from  a 
distinguished  alumna  of  a  sister  college.      She  writes  : 

"Miss  Pendleton  unites  a  detailed  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  history,  the  specific  excellences, 
and  the  definite  needs  of  Wellesley  College,  with 
openness  of  mind,  breadth  of  outlook  and  the  en- 
dowment for  constructive  leadership.  No  college 
procedure  seems  to  her  to  be  justified  by  precedent 
merely  ;  no  curriculum  or  legislation  is,  in  her  view, 
too  sacred  to  be  subject  to  revision.  Her  wide  ac- 
quaintance  with  the   policies  of  other  colleges   and 

112 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

with  modern  tendencies  in  education  prompts  her 
to  constant  enlargement  and  modification,  while  her 
accurate  knowledge  of  Wellesley's  conditions  and 
her  large  patience  are  a  check  on  the  too  exuberant 
spirit  of  innovation.  With  Miss  Pendleton  as  presi- 
dent, the  college  is  sure  to  advance  with  dignity 
and  with  safety.  She  will  do  better  than  'build 
up'  the  college,  for  she  will  quicken  and  guide  its 
growth  from  within. 

"Fundamental  to  the  professional  is  the  personal 
equipment  for  office.  Miss  Pendleton  is  unswerv- 
ingly just,  unstintedly  generous,  and  completely 
devoted  to  the  college.  Not  every  one  realizes  that 
her  reserve  hides  a  sympathy  as  keen  as  it  is  deep, 
though  no  one  doubts  this  who  has  ever  appealed 
to  her  for  help.  Finally,  all  those  who  really  know 
her  are  well  aware  that  she  is  utterly  self-forgetful, 
or  rather,  that  it  does  not  occur  to  her  to  consider 
any  decision  in  its  bearing  on  her  own  position  or 
popularity.  This  inability  to  take  the  narrowly 
personal  point  of  view  is,  perhaps,  her  most  distin- 
guishing characteristic.   .   .   . 

"Miss  Pendleton  unquestionably  conceives  the 
office  of  college  president  not  as  that  of  absolute 
monarch  but  as  that  of  constitutional  ruler;  not  as 
that  of  master,  but  as  that  of  leader.  Readers  of 
the  dean's   report    for    the   Sabbatical  year  of  Miss 

113 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Hazard's  absence,  in  which  Miss  Pendleton  was 
acting  president,  will  not  have  failed  to  notice  the 
spontaneous  expression  of  this  sense  of  comradeship 
in  Miss  Pendleton's  reference  to  the  faculty." 

Rhode  Island  has  twice  given  a  president  to  Wel- 
lesley,  for  Ellen  Fitz  Pendleton  was  born  at  Westerly, 
on  August  7,  1864,  the  daughter  of  Enoch  Burrowes 
Pendleton  and  Mary  Ette  (Chapman)  Pendleton. 
In  1882,  she  entered  Wellesley  College  as  a  fresh- 
man, and  since  that  date,  her  connection  with  her 
Alma  Mater  has  been  unbroken.  Her  classmates 
seem  to  have  recognized  her  power  almost  at  once, 
for  in  June,  1883,  at  the  end  of  her  freshman  year, 
we  find  her  on  the  Tree  Day  program  as  delivering 
an  essay  on  the  fern  beech  ;  and  she  was  later  in- 
vited into  the  Shakespeare  Society,  at  that  time 
Wellesley's  one  and  only  literary  society.  In  1886, 
Miss  Pendleton  was  graduated  with  the  degree  of 
B.A.,  and  entered  the  Department  of  Mathematics 
in  the  autumn  of  that  year  as  tutor;  in  1888,  she 
was  promoted  to  an  instructorship  which  she  held 
until  1 901,  with  a  leave  of  absence  in  1889  and  1890 
for  study  at  Xewnham  College,  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land. In  1 89 1,  she  received  the  degree  of  M.A. 
from  Wellesley.  Her  honorary  degrees  are  the  Litt.D. 
from  Brown  University  in  191 1,  and  the  LL.D.  from 
Alt.  Holyoke  in  191 2.    In  1S95,  she  was  made  Schedule 

m 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

Officer,  in  charge  of  the  intricate  work  involved  in 
arranging  and  simplifying  the  complicated  yearly 
schedule  of  college  class  appointments.  In  1897, 
she  became  secretary  of  the  college  and  held  this 
position  until  1901,  when  she  was  made  dean  and 
associate  professor  of  Mathematics.  During  Miss 
Hazard's  absences  and  after  Miss  Hazard's  resig- 
nation in  1910,  she  served  the  college  as  acting 
president. 

The  announcement  of  her  election  to  the  presi- 
dency was  made  to  the  college  on  June  9,  191 1, 
by  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and 
the  joy  with  which  it  was  received  by  faculty, 
alumnae,  and  students  was  as  outspoken  as  it  was 
genuine.  And  at  her  inauguration,  many  who 
listened  to  her  clear  and  simple  exposition  of  her 
conception  of  the  function  of  a  college  must  have 
rejoiced  anew  to  feel  that  Wellesley's  ideals  of 
scholarship  were  committed  to  so  safe  and  wise  a 
guardian.  Miss  Pendleton's  ideal  cannot  be  better 
expressed  than  in  her  own  straightforward  phrases  : 

"Happily  for  both,  men  and  women  must  work 
together  in  the  world,  and  I  venture  to  say  that  the 
function  of  a  college  for  men  is  not  essentially 
different  from  that  of  a  college  for  women." 

Of  the  twofold  function  of  the  college,  the  train- 
ing for  citizenship  and  the  preparation  of  the  scholar, 

115 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

she  says  :  "What  are  the  characteristics  of  the  ideal 
citizen,  and  how  may  they  be  developed  ?  He 
must  have  learned  the  important  lesson  of  viewing 
every  question  not  only  from  his  own  standpoint 
but  from  that  of  the  community ;  he  must  be  will- 
ing to  pay  his  share  of  the  public  tax  not  only  in 
money  but  also  in  time  and  thought  for  the  service 
of  his  town  and  state ;  he  must  have,  above  all, 
enthusiasm  and  capacity  for  working  hard  in  what- 
ever kind  of  endeavor  his  lot  may  be  cast.  It  is 
evident,  therefore,  that  the  college  must  furnish 
him  opportunity  for  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  his- 
tory, of  the  theory  of  government,  of  the  relations 
between  capital  and  labor,  of  the  laws  of  mathe- 
matics, chemistry,  physics,  which  underlie  our  great 
industries,  and  if  he  is  to  have  an  intelligent  and 
sympathetic  interest  in  his  neighbors,  and  be  able 
to  get  another's  point  of  view,  this  college-trained 
citizen  must  know  something  of  psychology  and  the 
laws  of  the  mind.  Nor  can  he  do  all  this  to  his  own 
satisfaction  without  access  to  other  languages  and 
literatures  besides  his  own.  Moreover,  the  ideal 
citizen  must  have  some  power  of  initiative,  and  he 
must  have  acquired  the  ability  to  think  clearly  and 
independently.  But  it  will  be  urged  that  a  college 
course  of  four  years  is  entirely  too  short  for  such  a 
task.      Perhaps,  but  what  the  college  cannot  actually 

110 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR   ACHIEVEMENT 

give,  it  can  furnish  the  stimulus  and  the  power  for 
obtaining  later." 

But  although  Miss  Pendleton's  attitude  toward 
college  education  is  characteristically  practical,  she 
is  careful  to  make  it  clear  that  the  practical  educator 
does  not  necessarily  approve  of  including  vocational 
training  in  a  college  course.  "I  do  not  propose  to 
discuss  the  question  in  detail,  but  is  it  not  fair  to  ask 
why  vocational  subjects  should  be  recognized  in  prep- 
aration when  the  aim  of  the  college  is  not  to  prepare 
for  a  vocation  but  to  develop  persona]  efficiency  ?" 

And  her  vision  includes  the  scholar,  or  the  genius, 
as  well  as  the  commonplace  student.  "The  college 
is  essentially  a  democratic  institution  designed  for 
the  rank  and  file  of  youth  qualified  to  make  use  of 
the  opportunities  it  offers.  But  the  material  equip- 
ment, the  curriculum,  and  the  teaching  force  which 
are  necessary  to  develop  personal  efficiency  in  the 
ordinary  student  will  have  failed  in  a  part  of  their 
purpose  if  they  do  not  produce  a  few  students  with 
the  ability  and  the  desire  to  extend  the  field  of 
human  knowledge.  There  will  be  but  few,  but 
fortunate  the  college,  and  happy  the  instructor, 
that  has  these  few.  Such  students  have  claims, 
and  the  college  is  bound  to  satisfy  them  without 
losing  sight  of  its  first  great  aim.  ...  It  is  the  task 
of   the   college   to   give   such   a    student   as   broad   a 

117 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

foundation  as  possible,  while  allowing  him  a  more 
specialized  course  than  is  deemed  wise  for  the  ordi- 
nary student.  The  college  will  have  failed  in  part 
of  its  function  if  it  does  not  furnish  such  a  student 
with  the  power  and  the  stimulus  to  continue  his 
search  for  truth  after  graduation.   .  .   . 

"Training  for  citizenship  and  the  preparation  of 
the  scholar  are  then  the  twofold  function  of  the 
college.  To  furnish  professional  training  for  law- 
yers, doctors,  ministers,  engineers,  librarians,  is  mani- 
festly the  work  of  the  university  or  the  technical 
school,  and  not  the  function  of  the  college.  Neither 
is  it,  in  my  opinion,  the  work  of  the  college  to  pre- 
pare its  students  specifically  to  be  teachers  or  even 
wives  and  husbands,  mothers  and  fathers.  It  is 
rather  its  part  to  produce  men  and  women  with  the 
power  to  think  clearly  and  independently,  who  recog- 
nize that  teaching  and  home-making  are  both  fine 
arts  worthy  of  careful  and  patient  cultivation,  and 
not  the  necessary  accompaniment  of  a  college  di- 
ploma. College  graduates  ought  to  make,  and  I 
believe  do  make,  better  teachers,  more  considerate 
husbands  and  wives,  wiser  fathers  and  mothers,  but 
the  chief  function  of  the  college  is  larger  than  this. 
The  aim  of  the  university  and  the  great  technical 
school  is  to  furnish  preparation  for  some  specific 
profession.     The    college    must    produce     men    and 

118 


PRESIDENTS    AND    THEIR    ACHIEVEMENT 

women  capable  of  using  the  opportunities  offered 
by  the  university,  men  and  women  with  sound 
bodies,  pure  hearts  and  clear  minds,  who  are  ready 
to  obey  the  commandment,  'Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy 
soul  and  with  all  thy  strength  and  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.'" 

In  this  day  of  diverse  and  confused  educational 
theories  and  ideals  it  is  refreshing  to  read  words  so 
discriminating  and  definite. 

The  earliest  events  of  importance  in  President 
Pendleton's  administration  are  connected,  as  might 
be  expected,  with  the  alumnae,  who  were  quickened 
to  a  more  active  and  objective  expression  of  loyalty 
by  this  first  election  of  a  Wellcs'ey  alumna  to  the 
presidential  office.  On  June  21,  191 1,  the  Graduate 
Council,  to  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter,  was  es- 
tablished by  the  Alumnae  Association ;  and  on 
October  5,  191 1,  the  first  number  of  the  alumnae 
edition  of  the  College'  Nezvs  was  issued.  In  the 
academic  year  1912-1913,  the  Monday  holiday  was 
abolished  and  the  new  schedule  with  recitations 
from  Monday  morning  until  Saturday  noon  was 
established.  After  the  mid-year  examinations  in 
191 2,  the  students  were  for  the  first  time  told  their 
marks.  In  191 3,  the  Village  Improvement  Associa- 
tion built  and  equipped,  on  the  college  grounds,  a 

110 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

kindergarten  to  be  under  the  joint  supervision  of  the 
Association  and  the  Department  of  Education.  The 
building  is  used  as  a  free  kindergarten  for  Wellesley 
children,  and  also  as  a  practice  school  for  graduate 
students  in  the  department.  A  campaign  for  an 
endowment  fund  of  one  million  dollars  was  also 
started  by  the  trustees  and  alumnae  under  the  leader- 
ship and  with  the  advice  of  the  new  president.  A 
committee  of  alumnae  was  appointed,  with  Miss 
Candace  C.  Stimson,  of  the  class  of  '92  as  chairman, 
to  cooperate  with  the  trustees  in  raising  the  money, 
and  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  had 
been  promised  when,  in  March,  1914,  occurred 
Wellesley's  great  catastrophe  —  which  she  was  to 
translate  immediately  into  her  great  opportunity  — 
the  burning  of  old  College  Hall. 

If,  in  the  years  to  come,  Wellesley  fulfills  that 
great  opportunity,  and  becomes  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  as  well  as  in  outward  seeming,  the  College 
Beautiful  which  her  daughters  see  in  their  visions 
and  dream  in  their  dreams,  it  will  be  by  the  soaring, 
unconquerable  faith  —  and  the  prompt  and  selfless 
works  —  of  the  daughter  who  said  to  a  college  in 
ruins,  on  that  March  morning,  "The  members  of 
the  college  will  report  for  duty  on  the  appointed 
date  after  the  spring  vacation,"  and  sent  her  flock 
away,  comforted,  high-hearted,  expectant  of  miracles. 

120 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    FACULTY    AND    THEIR    METHODS 

I 

AT  Wellesley,  to  a  degree  unusual  in  American 
l  colleges,  whether  for  men  or  women,  the 
faculty  determine  the  general  policy  of  the  college. 
The  president,  as  chairman  of  the  Academic  Coun- 
cil, is  in  a  very  real  and  democratic  sense  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  faculty,  not  the  ruler.  In  Miss 
Freeman's  day,  the  excellent  presidential  habit  of 
consulting  with  the  heads  of  departments  was 
formed,  and  many  of  the  changes  instituted  by  the 
young  president  were  suggested  and  formulated  by 
her  older  colleagues.  In  Miss  Shafer's  day,  habit 
had  become  precedent,  and  she  would  be  the  first 
to  point  out  that  the  "new  curriculum",  which  will 
always  be  associated  with  her  name,  was  really  the 
achievement  of  the  Academic  Council  and  the  de- 
partments, working  through  patient  years  to  adjust, 
develop,  and  balance  the  minutest  details  in  their 
composite  plan. 

121 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

The  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  faculty  has  been 
exerted  chiefly  along  academic  lines,  but  in  some 
instances  it  has  necessitated  important  emenda- 
tions of  the  statutes ;  and  that  the  trustees  were 
willing  to  alter  the  statutes  on  the  request  of  the 
faculty  would  indicate  the  friendly  confidence  felt 
toward  the  innovators. 

In  the  statutes  of  Wellesley  College,  as  printed 
in  1885,  we  read  that  "The  College  was  founded  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  service  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  and  by  the  education  and  culture  of 
women. 

"In  order  to  the  attainment  of  these  ends,  it  is 
required  that  every  Trustee,  Teacher,  and  Officer, 
shall  be  a  member  of  an  Evangelical  Church,  and 
that  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  shall  be  pur- 
sued by  every  student  throughout  the  entire  College 
course  under  the  direction  of  the  Faculty." 

In  the  early  nineties,  pressure  from  members  of 
the  faculty,  themselves  members  of  Evangelical 
churches,  induced  the  trustees  to  alter  the  religious 
requirement  for  teachers  ;  and  the  reorganization  of 
the  Department  of  Bible  Study  a  few  years  later 
resulted  in  a  drastic  change  in  the  requirements  for 
students. 

As  printed  in  1898,  the  statutes  read,  "To  realize 
this  design  it  is  required  that  every  Trustee  shall  be 

122 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

a  member  in  good  standing  of  some  Evangelical 
Church ;  that  every  teacher  shall  be  of  decided 
Christian  character  and  influence,  and  in  manifest 
sympathy  with  the  religious  spirit  and  aim  with 
which  the  College  was  founded  ;  and  that  the  study 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  by  every  student  shall 
extend  over  the  first  three  years,  with  opportunities 
for  elective  studies  in  the  same  during  the  fourth 
year." 

But  it  was  found  that  freshmen  were  not  mature 
enough  to  study  to  the  best  advantage  the  new 
courses  in  Biblical  Criticism,  and  the  statutes  as 
printed  in  191 2  record  still  another  amendment: 
"And  that  the  stud}'  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  by 
every  student  shall  extend  over  the  second  and 
third  years,  with  opportunities  for  elective  studies 
in  the  same  during  the  fourth  year." 

These  changes  are  the  more  pleasantly  signifi- 
cant, since  all  actual  power,  at  Wellesley  as  at 
most  other  colleges,  resides  with  the  trustees  if  they 
choose  to  use  it.  The}'  "have  control  of  the  college 
and  all  its  property,  and  of  the  investment  and 
appropriation  of  its  funds,  in  conformity  with  the 
design  of  its  establishment  and  with  the  act  of  in- 
corporation." They  have  "power  to  make  and 
execute  such  statutes  and  rules  as  they  ma}'  con- 
sider   needful    for  the   best   administration  of    their 

US 


THE  STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

trust,  to  appoint  committees  from  their  own  num- 
ber, or  of  those  not  otherwise  connected  with  the 
college,  and  to  prescribe  their  duties  and  powers." 
It  is  theirs  to  appoint  "all  officers  of  government  or 
instruction  and  all  employees  needed  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  institution  whose  appointment  is  not 
otherwise  provided  for."  They  determine  the  duties 
and  salaries  of  officers  and  employees  and  may  re- 
move, either  with  or  without  notice,  any  person 
whom  they  have  appointed. 

In  being  governed  undemocratically  from  without 
by  a  self-perpetuating  body  of  directors,  Wellesley 
is  of  course  no  worse  off  than  the  majority  of  Ameri- 
can colleges.  But  that  a  form  of  college  government 
so  patently  and  unreasonably  autocratic  should 
have  generated  so  little  friction  during  forty  years, 
speaks  volumes  for  the  broadmindedness,  the  gener- 
ous tolerance,  and  the  Christian  self-control  of  both 
faculty  and  trustees.  If,  in  matters  financial,  the 
trustees  have  been  sometimes  unwilling  to  consider 
the  scruples  of  groups  of  individuals  on  the  faculty, 
along  lines  of  economic  morals,  they  have  neverthe- 
less taken  no  official  steps  to  suppress  the  expression 
of  such  scruples.  They  have  withstood  any  re- 
actionary pressure  from  individuals  of  their  board, 
and  have  always  allowed  the  faculty  entire  academic 
freedom.        In    matters    pertaining    to    the    college 

124 


THE   FACULTY  AND  THEIR  METHODS 

classes,  they  are  usually  content  to  ratify  the  ap- 
pointments on  the  faculty,  and  approve  the  altera- 
tions in  the  curriculum  presented  to  them  by  the 
president  of  the  college  ;  and  the  president,  in  turn, 
leaves  the  professors  and  their  associates  remark- 
ably free  to  choose  and  regulate  the  personnel  and 
the  courses  in  the  departments. 

In  this  happy  condition  of  affairs,  the  alumnae 
trustees  undoubtedly  play  a  mediating  part,  for  they 
understand  the  college  from  within  as  no  clergyman, 
financier,  philanthropist,  —  no  graduate  of  a  man's 
college,  —  can  hope  to,  be  he  never  so  enthusiastic 
and  well-meaning  in  the  cause  of  woman's  educa- 
tion. But  so  long  as  the  faculty  are  excluded  from 
direct  representation  on  the  board,  the  situation 
will  continue  to  be  anomalous.  For  it  is  not  too 
sweeping  to  assert  that  Wellesley's  development  and 
academic  standing  are  due  to  the  cooperative  wisdom 
and  devoted  scholarship  of  her  faculty.  The  initia- 
tive has  been  theirs.  They  have  proved  that  a 
college  for  women  can  be  successfully  taught  and 
administered  by  women.  To  them  Wellesley  owes 
her  academic  status. 

From  the  beginning,  women  have  predominated 
on  the  Wellesley  faculty.  The  head  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Music  has  always  been  a  man,  but  he  had 
no    seat    upon    the    Academic    Council    until     1896. 

U5 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

In  1914-1915,  of  the  twenty-eight  heads  of  depart- 
ments, three  were  men,  the  professors  of  Music, 
of  Education,  and  of  French.  Of  the  thirty-nine 
professors  and  associate  professors,  not  heads  of 
departments,  five  were  men  ;  of  the  fifty-nine  in- 
structors, ten  were  men.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  there  were  no  men  in  the  departments  of  Greek, 
Latin,  Mathematics,  Physics,  Chemistry,  Astron- 
omy, Biblical  History,  Italian,  Spanish,  Reading 
and  Speaking,  Art,  and  Archaeology,  during  the 
academic  year  1914-1915. 

,  Critics  sometimes  complain  of  the  preponderance 
of  women  upon  Wellesley's  faculty,  but  her  policy 
in  this  respect  has  been  deliberate.  Every  woman's 
college  is  making  its  own  experiments,  and  the  re- 
sults achieved  at  Wellesley  indicate  that  a  faculty 
made  up  largely  of  women,  with  a  woman  at  its 
head,  in  no  way  militates  against  high  academic 
standards,  sound  scholarship,  and  efficient  adminis- 
tration. That  a  more  masculine  faculty  would 
also  have  peculiar  advantages,  she  does  not  deny. 

From  the  collegiate  point  of  view,  this  feminine 
faculty  is  a  very  well  mixed  body,  for  it  includes 
representative  graduates  from  the  other  women's 
colleges,  and  from  the  more  important  coeduca- 
tional colleges  and  state  universities,  as  well  as  men 
from  Harvard  and   Brown.     The  Wellesley  women 

126 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

on  the  faculty  are  an  able  minority;  but  it  is  the 
policy  of  the  college  to  avoid  academic  in-breeding 
and  to  keep  the  Wellesley  influence  a  minority  in- 
fluence. Of  the  twenty-eight  heads  of  departments, 
five  —  the  professors  of  English  Literature,  Chemis- 
try, Pure  Mathematics,  Biblical  History,  and 
Physics  —  are  Wellesley  graduates,  three  of  them 
from  the  celebrated  class  of  '80.  Of  the  thirty-nine 
professors  and  associate  professors,  in  1914-1915, 
ten  were  alumnae  of  Wellesley,  and  of  the  fifty-nine 
instructors,  seventeen.  Since  1895,  when  Professor 
Stratton  was  appointed  dean  to  assist  Mrs.  Irvine, 
Wellesley  has  had  five  deans,  but  only  Miss  Pendle- 
ton, who  held  the  office  under  Miss  Hazard  from 
1901  to  191 1,  has  been  a  graduate  of  Wellesley. 
Miss  Coman,  who  assisted  Miss  Hazard  for  one 
year  only,  and  Miss  Chapin,  who  consented  to  fill 
the  office  after  Miss  Pendleton's  appointment  to  the 
presidency  until  a  permanent  dean  could  be  chosen, 
were  both  graduates  of  the  University  of  Michigan. 
Dean  Waite,  who  succeeded  to  the  office  in  1 91 3,  is 
an  alumna  of  Smith  College,  and  has  been  a  member 
of  the  Department  oi  English  at  Wellesley  since  1896. 

II 

Only  the  women  who  have  helped  to  promote  and 
establish  the  higher  education  of  women  can  know 

U7 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

how  exciting  and  romantic  it  was  to  be  a  professor 
in  a  woman's  college  during  the  last  half-century. 
To  be  a  teacher  was  no  new  thing  for  a  woman ; 
the  dame  school  is  an  ancient  institution ;  all  down 
the  centuries,  in  classic  villas,  in  the  convents  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  in  the  salons  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
learned  ladies  with  a  pedagogic  instinct  have  left 
their  impress  upon  the  intellectual  life  of  their 
times.  But  the  possibility  that  women  might  be 
intellectually  and  physically  capable  of  sharing 
equally  with  men  the  burdens  and  the  joys  of  de- 
veloping and  directing  the  scholarship  of  the  race 
had  never  been  seriously  considered  until  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  women  who  came  to  teach 
in  the  women's  colleges  in  the  '70's  and  '8o's  and 
'90's  knew  themselves  on  trial  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  as  never  women  had  been  before.  And 
they  brought  to  that  trial  the  heady  enthusiasm 
and  radiant  exhilaration  and  fiery  persistence  which 
possess  all  those  who  rediscover  learning  and  drink 
deep.  They  knew  the  kind  of  selfless  inspiration 
Wyclif  knew  when  he  was  translating  the  Bible 
into  the  language  of  England's  common  people. 
They  shared  the  elation  and  devotion  of  Erasmus 
and  his  fellows. 

To   plan    a    curriculum   in   which   the   humanities 
and  the  sciences  should  every  one  be  given  a  fair 

128 


THE   FACULTY  AND   THEIR  METHODS 

chance ;  to  distinguish  intelligently  between  the 
advantages  of  the  elective  system  and  its  disad- 
vantages;  to  decide,  without  prejudice,  at  what 
points  the  education  of  the  girl  should  differ  or 
diverge  from  the  education  of  the  boy  ;  to  try  out 
the  pedagogic  methods  of  the  men's  colleges  and  dis- 
cover which  were  antiquated  and  should  be  abolished, 
which  were  susceptible  of  reform,  which  were  sound  ; 
to  invent  new  methods,  —  these  were  the  romantic 
quests  to  which  these  enamored  devotees  were 
vowed,  and  to  which,  through  more  than  half  a 
century,  they  have  been  faithful. 

Wellesley's  student  laboratory  for  experimental 
work  in  physics,  established  1878,  was  preceded 
in  Xcw  England  only  by  the  student  laboratory  of 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  Her 
laboratory  for  work  in  experimental  psychology, 
established  by  Professor  Calkins  in  1891,  was  the 
first  in  any  women's  college  in  the  country,  and  one 
of  the  first  in  any  college.  In  1886,  the  American 
School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens  invited  Wellesley 
to  become  one  of  the  cooperating  colleges  to  sustain 
this  school  and  to  enjoy  its  advantages.  The  invi- 
tation came  quite  unsolicited,  and  was  the  first 
extended  to  a  woman's  college. 

The  schoolmen  developing  and  expanding  their 
Trivium  and  Quadrivium  at  Oxford,  Paris,  Bologna, 

H9 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

experienced  no  keener  intellectual  delights  than  did 
their  belated  sisters  of  Vassar,  Smith,  Bryn  Mawr, 
Wellesley. 

But  in  order  to  understand  the  passion  of  their 
point  of  view,  we  must  remember  that  the  higher 
education  for  which  the  women  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  enthusiastic  was  distinctly  an  educa- 
tion along  scholarly  and  intellectual  lines ;  this  early 
and  original  meaning  of  the  term  "  higher  education  ", 
this  original  and  distinguishing  function  of  the 
woman's  college,  are  in  danger  of  being  blurred  and 
lost  sight  of  to-day  by  a  generation  that  knew  not 
Joseph.  The  zeal  with  which  the  advocates  of 
educational  and  domestic  training  are  trying  to 
force  into  the  curricula  of  women's  colleges  courses 
on  housekeeping,  home-making,  dressmaking,  dairy 
farming,  to  say  nothing  of  stenography,  typewriting, 
double  entry,  and  the  musical  glasses  minus  Shake- 
speare, is  for  the  most  part  unintelligible  to  the 
women  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  upbuilding 
of  such  colleges  as  Bryn  Mawr,  Smith,  Mt.  Hol- 
yoke,  Vassar,  and  Wellesley,  —  not  because  they 
minimize  the  civilizing  value  of  either  home- 
makers  or  business  women  in  a  community,  or  fail 
to  recognize  their  needs,  but  simply  because 
women's  colleges  were  never  intended  to  meet  those 
needs. 

130 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

When  we  go  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts,  we  do  not  complain  because  it  lacks  the 
characteristics  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  or  of 
the  Boston  Horticultural  Show.  We  are  content 
that  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
should  differ  in  scope  from  Harvard  University ; 
yet  some  of  us,  college  graduates  even,  seem  to  have 
an  uneasy  feeling  that  Wellesley  and  Bryn  Mawr  may 
not  be  ministering  adequately  to  life,  because  they 
do  not  add  to  their  curricular  activities  the  varied 
aims  of  an  Agricultural  College,  a  Business  College,  a 
School  of  Philanthropy,  and  a  Cooking  School,  with 
required  courses  on  the  modifying  of  milk  for  infants. 

Great  institutions  for  vocational  training,  such  as 
Pratt  Institute  in  Brooklyn  and  Simmons  College 
in  Boston,  have  a  dignity  and  a  usefulness  which  no 
one  disputes.  Undoubtedly  America  needs  more  of 
their  kind.  But  to  impair  the  dignity  and  useful- 
ness of  the  colleges  dedicated  to  the  higher  education 
of  women  by  diluting  their  academic  programs 
with  courses  on  business  or  domesticity  will  not 
meet  that  need.  The  unwillingness  of  college  facul- 
ties to  admit  vocational  courses  to  the  curriculum 
is  not  due  to  academic  conservatism  and  inability 
to  march  with  the  times,  but  to  an  unclouded  and 
accurate  conception  of  the  meaning  of  the  term 
''higher  education." 

131 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

But  definiteness  of  aim  does  not  necessarily  imply 
narrowness  of  scope.  The  Wellesley  Calendar  for 
191 4—  1 9 1 5  contains  a  Hst  of  three  hundred  and 
twelve  courses  on  thirty-two  subjects,  exclusive  of 
the  gymnasium  practice,  dancing,  swimming,  and 
games  required  by  the  Department  of  Hygiene.  Of 
these  subjects,  four  are  ancient  languages  and  their 
literatures,  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Sanskrit.  Seven 
are  modern  languages  and  their  literatures,  German, 
French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  English  Literature, 
Composition,  and  Language.  Ten  are  sciences, 
Mathematics,  pure  and  applied,  Astronomy,  Phys- 
ics, Chemistry,  Geology,  Geography,  Botany,  Zo- 
ology and  Physiology,  Hygiene.  Seven  are  scien- 
tifically concerned  with  the  mental  and  spiritual 
evolution  of  the  human  race,  Biblical  and  Secular 
History,  Economics,  Education,  Logic,  Psychology, 
and  Philosophy.  Four  may  be  classified  as  arts : 
Archaeology,  Art,  including  its  history,  Music,  and 
Reading  and  Speaking,  which  old-fashioned  people 
still  call  Elocution. 

From  this  wide  range  of  subjects,  the  candidates 
for  the  B.A.  degree  are  required  to  take  one  course 
in  Mathematics,  the  prescribed  freshman  course; 
one  course  in  English  Composition,  prescribed  for 
freshmen;  courses  in  Biblical  History  and  Hygiene; 
a   modern   language,    unless    two   modern    languages 

132 


THE   FACULTY  AND    THEIR   METHODS 

have  been  presented  for  admission;  two  natural 
sciences  before  the  junior  year,  unless  one  has  al- 
ready been  offered  for  admission,  in  which  case  one 
is  required,  and  a  course  in  Philosophy,  which  the 
student  should  ordinarily  take  before  her  senior 
year. 

These  required  studies  cover  about  twenty  of 
the  fifty-nine  hours  prescribed  for  the  degree  ;  the 
remaining  hours  are  elective;  but  the  student  must 
group  her  electives  intelligently,  and  to  this  end 
she  must  complete  either  nine  hours  of  work  in  each 
of  two  departments,  or  twelve  hours  in  one  depart- 
ment and  six  in  a  second  ;  she  must  specialize  within 
limits. 

It  will  be  evident  on  examining  this  program  that 
no  work  is  required  in  History,  Economics.  English 
Literature  and  Language,  Comparative  Philology, 
Education,  Archaeology,  Art,  Reading  and  Speaking, 
and  Music.  All  the  courses  in  these  departments 
are  free  electives.  Just  what  led  to  this  legislation, 
only  those  who  were  present  at  the  decisive  discus- 
sions of  the  Academic  Council  can  know.  Possibly 
they  have  discovered  by  experience  that  young 
women  do  not  need  to  be  coaxed  or  coerced  into 
studying  the  arts;  that  they  gravitate  naturally  to 
those  subjects  which  deal  with  human  society,  such 
as    History,     Economics,    and    English    Literature; 

133 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

and  that  the  specialist  can  be  depended  upon  to 
elect,  without  pressure,  courses  in  Philology  or 
Pedagogy. 

But  little  effort  has  been  made  at  Wellesley,  so  far, 
to  attract  graduate  students.  In  this  respect  she 
differs  from  Bryn  Mawr.  She  offers  very  few 
courses  planned  exclusively  for  college  graduates, 
but  opens  her  advanced  courses  in  most  departments 
to  both  seniors  and  graduates.  This  does  not 
mean,  however,  that  the  graduate  work  is  not  on  a 
sound  basis.  Wellesley  has  not  yet  exercised  her 
right  to  give  the  Doctor's  degree,  but  expert  testi- 
mony, outside  the  college,  has  declared  that  some 
of  the  Masters'  theses  are  of  the  doctorial  grade  in 
quality,  if  not  in  quantity ;  and  the  work  for  the 
Master's  degree  is  said  to  be  more  difficult  and 
more  severely  scrutinized  than  in  some  other 
colleges  where  the  Doctor's  degree  is  made  the  chief 
goal  of  the  graduate  student. 

The  college  has  in  its  gift  the  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer  Fellowship,  founded  in  1903  by  Mrs.  David 
P.  Kimball  of  Boston,  and  yielding  an  income  of 
about  one  thousand  dollars.  The  holder  must  be  a 
woman,  a  graduate  of  \\  ellesley  or  some  other 
American  college  of  approved  standing;  she  must 
be  "not  more  than  twenty-six  years  of  age  at  the 
time    of    her    appointment,    unmarried    throughout 

134 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

the  whole  of  her  tenure,  and  as  free  as  possible  from 
other  responsibilities."  She  may  hold  the  fellow- 
ship for  one  year  only,  but  "within  three  years  from 
entrance  on  the  fellowship  she  must  present  to  the 
faculty  a  thesis  embodying  the  results  of  the  research 
carried  on  during  the  period  of  tenure." 

Wellesley  is  proud  of  her  Alice  Freeman  Palmer 
Fellows.  Of  the  eleven  who  have  held  the  Fellow- 
ship between  1 904  and  191 5,  four  are  Wellesley 
graduates,  Helen  Dodd  Cook,  whose  subject  was 
Philosophy ;  Isabelle  Stone,  working  in  Greek ; 
Gertrude  Schopperle,  in  Comparative  Literature; 
Laura  Alandis  Hibbard,  in  English  Literature. 
Two  are  from  Radcliffe,  and  one  each  from  Cornell, 
Yassar,  the  University  of  Dakota,  Ripon,  and 
Goucher.  The  Fellow  is  left  free  to  study  abroad, 
in  an  American  college  or  university,  or  to  use  the 
income  for  independent  research.  The  list  of  univer- 
sities at  which  these  young  women  have  studied  is 
as  impressive  as  it  is  long.  It  includes  the  American 
Schools  for  Classical  Studies  at  Athens  and  Rome; 
the  universities  of  Gottingcn,  Wurzburg,  Munich, 
Paris,  and  Cambridge,  England ;  and  \  ale,  Johns 
Hopkins,  and  the  University  of   Chicago. 

This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  give  a  detailed 
account  of  the  work  of  each  one  of  Wellesley's 
academic  departments.      Any  intelligent  person  who 

113.5 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

turns  the  pages  of  the  official  calendar  may  easily 
discover  that  the  standard  of  admission  and  the 
requirements  for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts 
place  Wellesley  in  the  first  rank  among  American 
colleges,  whether  for  men  or  for  women.  But  every 
woman's  college,  besides  conforming  to  the  general 
standard,  is  making  its  own  contribution  to  the 
higher  education  of  women.  At  Wellesley,  the 
methods  in  certain  departments  have  gained  a  de- 
servedly high  reputation. 

The  Department  of  Art,  under  Professor  Alice 
V.  V.  Brown,  formerly  of  the  Slater  Museum  of 
Norwich,  Connecticut,  is  doing  a  work  in  the  proper 
interpretation  and  history  of  art  as  unique  as  it  is 
valuable.  The  laboratory  method  is  used,  and  all 
students  are  required  to  recognize  and  indicate  the 
characteristic  qualities  and  attributes  of  the  great  mas- 
ters and  the  different  schools  of  paintings  by  sketch- 
ing from  photographs  of  the  pictures  studied-  These 
five  and  ten  minute  sketches  by  young  girls,  the 
majority  of  whom  have  had  no  training  in  drawing, 
are  remarkable  for  the  vivacity  and  accuracy  with 
which  they  reproduce  the  salient  features  of  the  great 
paintings.  The  students  are  of  course  given  the 
latest  results  of  the  modern  school  of  art  criticism. 
In  addition  to  the  work  with  undergraduates,  the 
department  offers  courses  to  graduate  students  who 

136 


Thr    Music    I  la! 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

wish  to  prepare  themselves  for  curatorships,  or 
lectureships  in  art  museums,  and  Wellesley  women 
occupy  positions  of  trust  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
in  New  York,  in  the  Boston  Art  Museum,  in  museums 
in  Chicago,  Worcester,  and  elsewhere.  The  "  Short 
History  of  Italian  Painting"  by  Professor  Brown 
and  Mr.  William  Rankin  is  a  standard  authority. 
The  Department  of  Music,  working  quite  inde- 
pendently of  the  Department  of  Art,  has  also  adapted 
laboratory  methods  to  its  own  ends  with  unusual 
results.  Under  Professor  Hamilton  C.  Macdougall, 
the  head  of  the  department,  and  Associate  Professor 
Clarence  G.  Hamilton,  courses  in  musical  interpreta- 
tion have  been  developed  in  connection  with  the 
courses  in  practical  music.  The  first-year  class, 
meeting  once  a  week,  listens  to  an  anonymous  musical 
selection  played  by  one  of  its  members,  and  must 
decide  by  internal  evidence  —  such  as  simple  ca- 
dences, harmonic  figuration  as  applied  to  the  accom- 
paniment, and  other  characteristics  —  upon  the 
school  of  the  composer,  and  biographical  data.  The 
analysis  of  the  musical  selection  and  the  reasons  for 
her  decision  are  set  down  in  her  notebook  by  the  listen- 
ing student.  The  second-year  class  concerns  itself 
with  "the  thematic  and  polyphonic  melody,  the 
larger  forms,  harmony  in  its  aesthetic  bearings,  the 
aesthetic   effects  of  the   more   complicated   rhythms, 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

comparative  criticism  and  the  various  schools  of 
composition." 

These  valuable  contributions  to  method  and 
scope  in  the  study  of  the  History  of  Art  and  the 
History  of  Music  are  original  with  Wellesley,  and 
are  distinctly  a  part  of  her  history. 

Among  the  departments  which  carry  prestige 
outside  the  college  walls  are  those  of  Philosophy 
and  Psychology,  English  Literature,  and  German. 
Wellesley's  Department  of  English  Literature  is 
unusually  fortunate  in  having  as  interpreters  of  the 
great  literature  of  England  a  group  of  women  of 
letters  of  established  reputation.  What  Longfellow, 
Lowell,  Norton,  were  to  the  Harvard  of  their  day, 
Katharine  Lee  Bates,  Yida  D.  Scudder,  Sophie 
Jewett,  and  Margaret  Sherwood  are  to  the  Wellesley 
of  their  day  and  ours.  Working  together,  with 
unfailing  enthusiasm  for  their  subjects,  and  keen 
insight  into  the  cultural  needs  of  American  girls, 
they  have  built  up  their  department  on  a  sure  founda- 
tion of  accurate  scholarship  and  tested  pedagogic 
method.  At  a  time  when  the  study  of  literature 
threatened  to  become,  almost  universally,  an  exercise 
in  the  dry  rot  of  philological  terms,  in  the  cataloguing 
of  sources,  or  the  analyzing  of  literary  forms,  the 
department  at  Wellesley  continued  unswervingly  to 
make  use  of  philology,  sources,  and  even  art  forms, 

138 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

as  means  to  an  end;  that  end  the  interpretation  of 
literary  epochs,  the  illumination  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  values  in  literary  masterpieces,  the  revela- 
tion of  the  soul  of  poet,  dramatist,  essayist,  novelist. 
No  teaching  of  literature  is  less  sentimental  than  the 
teaching  at  Wellesley,  and  no  teaching  is  more  quick- 
ening to  the  imagination.  Now  that  the  method 
of  accumulated  detail  "about  it  and  about  it",  is 
being  defeated  by  its  own  aridity,  Wellesley's  firm 
insistence  upon  listening  to  literature  as  to  a  living 
voice  is  justified  of  her  teachers  and  her  students. 

Indications  of  the  reputation  achieved  by  Welles- 
lev's  methods  of  teaching  German  are  found  in  the 
increasing  numbers  of  students  who  come  to  the 
college  for  the  sake  of  the  work  in  the  German  De- 
partment, and  in  the  fact  that  teachers'  agencies  not 
infrequently  ask  candidates  for  positions  if  they  are 
familiar  with  the  Wellesley  methods.  In  an  address 
before  the  Xew  Hampshire  State  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion, in  1913,  Professor  Miillcr  describes  the  aims 
and  ideals  of  her  department  as  the}'  took  shape 
under  the  constructive  leadership  of  her  predecessor, 
Professor  Wenckebach,  and  as  they  have  been 
modified  and  developed  in  later  years  to  meet  the 
needs  of  American  students. 

"Cinderella  became  a  princess  and  a  ruler  over 
night."    says    Professor    Miillcr,    "that    is,    German 

13!) 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

suddenly  took  the  position  in  our  college  that  it  has 
held  ever  since.  Such  a  result  was  due  not  merely  to 
methods,  of  course,  but  first  of  all  to  the  strong  and 
enthusiastic  personality  that  was  identified  with  them, 
and  that  was  the  main  secret  of  the  unusual  effective- 
ness of  Fraulein  Wenckebach's  teaching. 

"But  this  German  professor  had  not  only  live 
methods  and  virile  personal  qualities  to  help  her 
along  ;  she  also  had  what  a  great  many  of  the  foreign 
language  teachers  in  this  country  must  as  yet  do 
without,  that  is,  the  absolute  confidence,  warm 
appreciation,  and  financial  support  of  an  enlight- 
ened administration.  President  Freeman  and  the 
trustees  seem  to  have  done  practically  everything 
that  their  intrepid  professor  of  German  asked  for. 
They  not  only  saw  that  all  equipments  needed  .  .  . 
were  provided,  but  they  also  generously  stipulated, 
at  Fraulein  Wenckebach's  urgent  request,  that  all 
the  elementary  and  intermediate  classes  in  the  foreign 
language  departments  should  be  kept  small,  that  is, 
that  they  should  not  exceed  fifteen.  If  Fraulein 
Wenckebach  had  been  obliged,  as  many  modern 
language  teachers  still  arc,  to  teach  German  to 
classes  of  from  thirty  to  forty  students  ;  if  she  had 
met  in  the  administration  of  Wellesley  College  with 
as  little  appreciation  and  understanding  of  the  fine 
art  and  extreme  difficult}'  of  foreign  language  work 

HO 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

as  high  school  teachers,  for  instance,  often  encounter, 
her  efforts  could  not  possibly  have  been  crowned 
with  success. 

"Another  agent  in  enabling  Fraulein  Wenckebach 
to  do  such  fine  constructive  work  with  her  Depart- 
ment was  the  general  Wellesley  policy,  still  followed, 
I  am  happy  to  say,  of  centralizing  all  power  and 
responsibility  regarding  department  affairs  in  the 
person  of  the  head  of  the  Department.  Centraliza- 
tion may  not  work  well  in  politics,  but  a  foreign 
language  department  working  with  the  reformed 
methods  could  not  develop  the  highest  efficiency 
under  any  other  form  of  government.  With  a  living 
organism,  such  as  a  foreign  language  department 
should  be,  there  ought  to  be  one,  and  only  one, 
responsible  person  to  keep  her  finger  on  the  pulse  of 
things  —  otherwise  disintegration  and  ineffectiveness 
of  the  work  as  a  whole  is  sure  to  follow." 

Professor  Miiller  goes  on  to  say,  "Now  joy,  genu- 
ine joy,  in  their  work,  based  on  good,  strong,  mental 
exercise,  is  what  we  want  and  what  on  the  whole 
we  get  from  our  students.  It  was  so  in  the  days  of 
Fraulein  Wenckebach  and  is  so  now,  I  am  happy  to 
say  —  and  not  in  the  literature  courses  only,  but  in 
our  elementary  drill  work  as  well. 

"It  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  our  elementary 
work  and  also  the  advanced  work  in  grammar  and 

141 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

idiom  are  at  present  taught  by  Americans  wholly. 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  well-trained 
Americans  gifted  with  vivid  personalities  get  better 
results  along  those  lines  than  the  average  teacher  of 
foreign  birth  and  breeding." 

Even  in  the  elementary  courses,  only  those  texts 
are  used  which  illustrate  German  life,  literature, 
and  history  ;  and  the  advanced  electives  are  carefully 
guarded,  so  that  no  student  may  elect  courses  in 
modern  German,  the  novel  and  the  drama,  who  has 
not  already  been  well  grounded  in  Goethe,  Schiller, 
and  Lessing.  The  drastic  thoroughness  with  which 
unpromising  students  are  weeded  out  of  the  courses 
in  German  enhances  rather  than  defeats  their  popu- 
larity among  undergraduates. 

The  learned  women  who  direct  Wellesley's  work  in 
Philosophy  and  Psychology  lend  their  own  distinc- 
tion to  this  department.  Professor  Case,  a  graduate 
of  the  University  of  Michigan,  has  been  connected 
with  the  college  since  1884,  and  her  courses  in  Greek 
Philosophy  and  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  make  an 
appeal  to  thoughtful  students  which  does  not  lessen 
as  the  years  pass.  Professor  Gamble,  Wellesley's 
own  daughter,  is  the  foremost  authority  on  smell, 
among  psychologists.  Tn  her  chosen  field  of  experi- 
mental psychology  she  has  achieved  results  attained 
by  no  one  else,  and  her  work  has  a  Continental  rep- 

142 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

utation.  Professor  Calkins,  the  head  of  the  De- 
partment, is  one  of  the  distinguished  alumnae  of  Smith 
College.  She  has  also  passed  Harvard's  examina- 
tion for  the  Doctor's  degree ;  but  Harvard  does  not 
yet  confer  its  degree  upon  women.  She  was  the  first 
woman  to  receive  the  degree  of  Litt.D.  from  Colum- 
bia University,  and  the  first  woman  to  be  elected 
to  the  presidency  of  the  American  Psychological 
Association,  succeeding  William  James  in  that 
office. 

In  the  Department  of  Economics  and  Sociology, 
organized  under  the  leadership  of  Professor  Katharine 
Coman,  in  1901,  Wellesley  has  been  fortunate  in 
having  as  teachers  two  women  of  national  reputation 
whose  interest  in  the  human  side  of  economic  prob- 
lems has  vitalized  for  their  eager  classes  a  subject 
which,  unless  sympathetically  handled,  lends  itself 
all  too  easily  to  mechanical  interpretations  of  theory. 
Professor  Coman's  wide  and  intimate  knowledge  of 
American  economic  conditions,  as  evidenced  in  her 
books,  the  "  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States", 
and  "Economic  Beginnings  of  the  Far  West",  in  her 
studies  in  Social  Insurance  published  in  The  Survey, 
and  in  her  practical  work  for  the  College  Settlements 
Association  and  the  Consumers'  League,  and  as  an 
active  member  of  the  Strike  Committee  during  the 
strike   of   the   Chicago   Garment   Workers    in    1910- 

143 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

191 1,  lent  to  her  teaching  an  appeal  which  more 
cloistered  theorists  can  never  achieve.  The  letters 
which  came  to  her  from  alumnae,  after  her  resigna- 
tion from  the  department  in  191 3,  were  of  the  sort 
that  every  teacher  cherishes.  Since  her  death  in 
January,  191 5,  some  of  these  letters  have  been 
printed  in  a  memorial  number  of  the  Wellesley 
College  News.  Nothing  could  better  illustrate  her 
influence  as  an  intellectual  force  in  the  college  to 
which  she  came  as  an  instructor  in  1880.  One 
of  her  oldest  students  writes  : 

"I  am  too  late  for  the  thirtieth  anniversary,  but 
still  it  is  never  too  late  to  say  how  much  I  enjoyed 
my  work  with  you  in  college.  It  always  seemed 
such  grown-up  work.  Partly,  I  suppose,  because 
it  was  closely  related  to  the  things  of  life,  and  partly 
because  you  demanded  a  more  grown-up  and  thought- 
ful point  of  view.  It  was  a  great  privilege  to  have 
your  Economics  as  a  sophomore.  I  have  always 
meant  to  tell  you,  too,  of  what  great  practical  value 
your  seminar  in  Statistics  was  to  me.  It  gave  me 
enough  insight  into  the  principles  and  practice  to 
encourage  me  to  present  my  work  the  first  year  out 
of  college  in  statistical  form.  It  was  approved. 
Without  the  incentive  and  the  little  experience  I  had 
gained  from  you  I  might  not  have  tried  to  do  this. 
Since  then,  in  whatever  field  of  social  work  I  have  been 

144 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

I  have  found  this  ability  valuable,  and  I  developed 
enough  skill  at  it  to  handle  the  investigation  into 
wages  of  the  Massachusetts  Minimum  Wage  Com- 
mission without  other  training.  I  am  very  grateful 
to  you  for  this  bit  of  technical  training  for  which 
I  would  never  have  taken  the  time  later." 

Another  says  :  "It  is  a  pleasure  to  have  an  oppor- 
tunity, after  so  many  years,  to  make  some  expression 
of  the  gratitude  I  owe  you.  The  course  in  Political 
Economy  which  I  was  so  wise  as  to  take  with  you 
has  proved  of  vital  importance  to  me.  That  was 
in  1887-1888,  but  as  I  look  back  I  see  that  in  your 
teaching  then,  you  presented  to  us  the  ideas,  the 
concepts,  which  are  now  accepted  principles  of  men's 
thought  as  to  the  relation  of  class  to  class,  of  man  to 
man.  And  so  I  feel  that  it  was  to  your  enthusiasm, 
your  power  of  inspiring  your  pupils  that  I  owe  my 
own  interest  in  economic  and    sociological   affairs. " 

And  still  another  :  "I  have  had  more  real  pleasure 
from  my  Economics  courses  and  Sociology  courses 
than  from  any  others  of  my  college  course.  Had  it 
not  been  for  yourself  and  Miss  Balch,  that  work 
would  not  have  stood  for  so  much.  For  your  guid- 
ance and  your  inspiration  I  am  most  grateful.  I 
have  tried  to  carry  out  your  ideals  as  far  as  possible 
in  the  \  isiting  Xurse  work  and  the  Social  Settlement 
in  Omaha  ever  since  leaving  YVellesley." 

145 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

Professor  Emily  Greene  Balch,  who  succeeded 
Miss  Coman  as  head  of  the  Department  of  Economics, 
is  herself  an  authority  on  questions  of  immigration ; 
her  book,  "Our  Slavic  Fellow  Citizens",  is  an  im- 
portant contribution  to  the  history  of  the  subject, 
and  has  been  cited  in  the  German  Reichstag  as 
authoritative  on  Slavic  immigration.  She  has  also 
served  on  more  than  one  State  commission  in  Massa- 
chusetts, —  among  them  the  disinterested  and  com- 
petent City  Planning  Board,  —  and  the  sanity  and 
judicial  balance  of  her  opinions  are  recognized  and 
valued  by  conservatives  and  radicals  alike.  Besides 
the  traditional  courses  in  Economic  History  and 
Theory,  Wellesley  offers  under  Miss  Balch  a  course 
in  Socialism,  a  critical  study  of  its  main  theories 
and  political  movements,  open  to  juniors  and  seniors 
who  have  already  completed  two  other  courses  in 
Economics;  a  course  entitled  "The  Modern  Labor 
Movement",  in  which  special  attention  is  given  to 
labor  legislation,  factory  inspection,  and  the  organi- 
zation of  labor,  with  a  study  of  methods  of  meeting 
the  difficulties  of  the  modern  industrial  situation ; 
and  a  course  in  Immigration  and  the  problems  to 
which  it  gives  rise  in  the  United  States. 

The  Wellesley  fire  did  the  college  one  good  turn 
by  bringing  to  the  notice  of  the  general  public  the 
departments    of    Science.     When    so    many    of    the 

146 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

laboratories  and  so  much  of  the  equipment  were 
swept  away,  outsiders  became  aware  of  the  excellent 
work  which  was  being  done  in  those  laboratories; 
of  the  modern  work  in  Geology  and  Geography 
carried  on  not  only  in  Wellesley  but  for  the  teachers 
of  Boston  by  Professor  Fisher  who  is  so  wisely  develop- 
ing the  department  which  Professor  Xiles  set  on  its 
firm  foundation  ;  of  the  work  of  Professor  Robertson 
who  is  an  authority'  on  the  bryozoa  fauna  of  the 
Pacific  coast  of  Xorth  America  and  Japan;  of  the 
authoritative  work  on  the  life  history  of  Pinus,  by 
Professor  Ferguson  of  the  Department  of  Botany; 
of  the  quiet,  thorough,  modern  work  for  students  in 
Physics  and  Chemistry  and  Astronomy'. 

An  evidence  of  the  excellent  organization  of  depart- 
mental work  at  Wellesley  is  found  in  the  ease  and 
smoothness  with  which  the  Department  of  Hygiene,, 
formerly  the  Boston  Normal  School  of  Gymnastics, 
has  become  a  force  in  the  Wellesley  curriculum  under 
the  direction  of  Miss  Amy  Morris  Homans,  who  was 
also  the  head  of  the  school  in  Boston.  By  a  gradual 
process  of  adjustment,  admission  to  the  two  years* 
course  leading  to  a  certificate  in  the  Department  of 
Hygiene  "will  be  limited  to  applicants  who  are 
candidates  for  the  B.A.  degree  at  Wellesley  College 
and  to  those  who  already  hold  the  Bachelor's  degree 
either    from   \\  ellesley   College  or   from   some  other 

1  17 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

college."  A  five  years'  course  is  also  offered,  by 
which  students  may  obtain  both  the  B.A.  degree 
and  the  certificate  of  the  department.  But  all 
students,  whether  working  for  the  certificate  or  not, 
must  take  a  one-hour  course  in  Hygiene  in  the 
freshman  year,  and  two  periods  a  week  of  practical 
gymnastic  work  in  the  freshman  and  sophomore 
years. 

Like  all  American  colleges,  Wellesley  makes  heavy 
and  constant  demands  on  the  mere  pedagogic  power 
of  its  teachers.  Their  days  are  pretty  well  filled 
with  the  classroom  routine  and  the  necessary  and 
incessant  social  intercourse  with  the  eager  crowd  of 
youth.  It  may  be  years  before  an  American  college 
for  women  can  sustain  and  foster  creative  scholarship 
for  its  own  sake,  after  the  example  of  the  European 
universities  ;  but  Wellesley  is  not  ungenerous  ;  the 
Sabbatical  Grant  gives  certain  heads  of  departments 
an  opportunity  for  refreshment  and  personal  work 
every  seven  years  ;  and  even  those  who  do  not  profit 
by  this  privilege  manage  to  keep  their  minds  alive 
by  outside  work  and  contacts. 

Every  two  years  the  secretary  to  the  president 
issues  a  list  of  faculty  publications,  ranging  from 
verse  and  short  stories  in  the  best  magazines  to 
papers  in  learned  reviews  for  esoteric  consumption 
only ;    from  idyllic   novels,   such   as  Margaret  Sher- 

148 


THE    FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

wood's  "Daphne",  and  sympathetic  travel  sketches 
like  Katharine  Lee  Bates's  "Spanish  Highways  and 
Byways",  to  scholarly  translations,  such  as  Sophie 
Jewett's  "Pearl"  and  Yida  D.  Scudder's  "Letters  of 
St.  Catherine  of  Siena",  and  philosophical  treatises, 
of  which  Mary  Whiton  Calkins's  "Persistent  Prob- 
lems of  Philosophy",  translated  into  several  lan- 
guages,  is   a    notable   example. 

But  the  Wellesley  faculty  is  a  public-spirited 
body  ;  its  contribution  to  the  general  life  is  not  only 
abstract  and  literary;  for  many  of  its  members  are 
identified  with  modern  movements  toward  better 
citizenship.  Miss  Balch,  besides  her  work  on 
municipal  committees,  is  connected  with  the  Woman's 
Trade  Union  League,  and  is  interested  in  the  great 
movement  for  peace.  In  the  spring  of  191 5,  she 
was  one  of  those  who  sailed  with  Miss  Jane  Addams 
to  attend  the  Woman's  Peace  Congress  at  the 
Hague,  and  she  afterwards  visited  other  European 
countries  on  a  mission  of  peace.  Miss  Bates  is 
active  in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  International 
Institute  in  Spain.  The  American  College  for  Girls 
in  Constantinople  often  looks  to  Wellesley  for 
teachers,  and  more  than  one  Wellesley  professor  has 
given  a  Sabbatical  year  to  the  schoolgirls  in  Con- 
stantinople. During  the  absence  of  President  Pat- 
rick, Professor  Roxana  \  ivian  of  W  ellesley  was  acting 

149 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

president,  and  had  the  honor  of  bringing  the  college 
safely  through  the  perplexities  and  terrors  of  the 
Young  Turks'  Revolution  in  1908  and  1909.  Pro- 
fessor Kendall,  of  the  Department  of  History,  is 
Wellesley's  most  distinguished  traveler.  Her  book, 
*'A  Wayfarer  in  China",  tells  the  story  of  some  of 
her  travels,  and  she  has  received  the  rare  honor,  for 
a  woman,  of  being  made  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society.  Miss  Calkins  is  an  officer 
of  the  Consumers'  League.  Miss  Scudder  has  been 
identified  from  its  outset  with  the  College  Settle- 
ments Movement,  and  of  late  years  with  the  new 
service  to  Italian  immigrants  inaugurated  by  Deni- 
son  House. 

As  a  result  of  these  varied  interests,  the  intellectual 
fellowship  among  the  older  women  in  the  college 
community  is  of  a  peculiarly  stimulating  quality, 
and  the  fact  that  it  is  almost  exclusively  a  feminine 
fellowship  does  not  affect  its  intellectuality.  The 
Wellesley  faculty,  like  the  faculty  of  Harvard,  is 
not  a  cloistered  body,  and  contact  with  the  minds 
of  "a  world  of  men"  through  books  and  the  visita- 
tions of  itinerant  scholars  is  about  as  easy  in  the 
-one  case  as  in  the  other.  Every  year  Wellesley  has  her 
share  of  distinguished  visitors,  American,  European, 
and  Oriental,  scholars,  poets,  scientists,  statesmen, 
who  enrich  her  life  and  enlarge  her  spiritual  vision. 

150 


THE   FACULTY  AND   THEIR   METHODS 

III 

One  chapter  of  Wellesley's  history  it  is  too  soon 
to  write  :  the  story  of  the  great  names  and  great 
personalities,  the  spiritual  stuff  of  which  every  college 
is  built.  This  is  the  chapter  on  which  the  historians 
of  men's  colleges  love  best  to  dwell.  But  the 
women's  lips  and  pens  are  fountains  sealed,  for  a 
reticent  hundred  years  —  or  possibly  less,  under 
pressure  —  with  the  seals  of  academic  reserve,  and 
historic  perspective,  and  traditional  modest}'.  Most 
of  the  women  who  had  a  hand  in  the  making  of 
Wellesley's  first  forty  years  are  still  alive.  There's 
the  rub.  It  would  not  hamper  the  journalist.  But 
the  historian  lias  his  conventions.  One  hundred 
years  from  now,  what  names,  living  to-day,  will  be 
written  in  Wellesley's  golden  book  ?  Already  they 
are  written  in  many  prophetic  hearts.  However, 
women  can  keep  a  secret. 

Even  of  those  who  have  already  finished  their 
work  on  earth,  it  is  too  soon  to  speak  authoritatively ; 
but  gratitude  and  love  will  not  be  silent,  and  no 
story  of  Wellesley's  first  half-century  would  be 
complete  that  held  no  records  of  their  devotion  and 
continuing  influence. 

Among  the  pioneers,  there  was  no  more  interesting 
and  forceful  personality  than  Susan  Maria  Hallowell, 

lol 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

who  came  to  Wellesley  as  Professor  of  Natural  His- 
tory in  1875,  the  friend  of  Agassiz  and  Asa  Gray. 
She  was  a  Maine  woman,  and  she  had  been  teaching 
twenty-two  years,  in  Bangor  and  Portland,  before 
she  was  called  to  Wellesley.  Her  successor  in  the 
Department  of  Botany  writes  in  a  memorial  sketch 
of  her  life  : 

''With  that  indefatigable  zeal  so  characteristic 
of  her  whole  life,  she  began  the  work  in  preparation 
for  the  new  position.  She  went  from  college  to 
college,  from  university  to  university,  studying  the 
scientific  libraries  and  laboratories.  At  the  close 
of  this  investigation  she  announced  to  the  founders 
of  the  college  that  the  task  which  they  had  assigned 
to  her  was  too  great  for  any  one  individual  to  under- 
take. There  must  be  several  professorships  rather 
than  one.  Of  those  named  she  was  given  first  choice, 
and  when,  in  1876,  she  opened  her  laboratories 
and  actually  began  her  teaching  in  Wellesley  College, 
she  did  so  as  professor  of  Botany,  although  her  title 
was  not  formally  changed  until  1878. 

"The  foundations  which  she  laid  were  so  broad 
and  sure,  the  several  courses  which  she  organized 
were  so  carefully  outlined,  that,  except  where 
necessitated  by  more  recent  developments  in  science, 
only  very  slight  changes  in  the  arrangement  and 
distribution  of    the    work  in    her    department   lave 

152 


THE   FACULTY  AND   THEIR   METHODS 

since  been  necessary.  .  .  .  She  organized  and  built 
up  a  botanical  library  which  from  the  first  was  second 
to  that  of  no  other  college  in  the  country,  and  is  to- 
day only  surpassed  by  the  botanical  libraries  of  a  few 
of  our  great  universities." 

Fortunately  the  botanical  library  and  the  labora- 
tories were  housed  in  Stone  Hall,  and  escaped  devas- 
tation by  the  fire. 

Professor  Hallowell  was  the  first  woman  to  be 
admitted  to  the  botanical  lectures  and  laboratories 
of  the  University  of  Berlin.  She  "was  not  a  pro- 
ductive scholar",  again  we  quote  from  Professor 
Ferguson,  "as  that  term  is  now  used,  and  hence  her 
gifts  and  her  achievements  are  but  little  known  to  the 
botanists  of  to-day.  She  was  preeminently  a  teacher 
and  an  organizer.  Only  those  who  knew  her  in  this 
double  capacity  can  fully  realize  the  richness  of  her 
nature  and  the  power  of  her  personality."  She 
retired  from  active  service  at  the  college  in  February, 
1902,  when  she  was  made  Professor  Emeritus  ;  but 
she  lived  in  Wellesley  village  with  her  friend,  Miss 
Horton,  the  former  professor  of  Greek,  until  her 
death  in  191 1.  Mrs.  Xorth  gives  us  a  charming 
glimpse  of  the  quaint  and  dignified  little  old  lady. 
"When  in  recent  years  the  blossoming  forth  of 
academic  dress  made  a  pageant  of  our  great  occasions, 
the  badges  of  scholarship  seemed  to  her  foreign  to  the 

1.53 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

simplicity  of  true  learning,  and  she  walked  bravely 
in  the  Commencement  procession,  wearing  the  little 
bonnet  which  henceforth  became  a  distinction." 

Another  early  member  of  the  Department  of 
Botany,  Clara  Eaton  Cummings,  who  came  to 
Wellesley  as  a  student  in  1876  and  kept  her  con- 
nection with  the  college  until  her  death,  as  associate 
professor,  in  1906,  was  a  scientific  scholar  of  dis- 
tinguished reputation.  Her  work  in  cryptogamic 
botany  gained  the  respect  of  botanists  for  Wellesley. 

With  this  pioneer  group  belongs  also  Professor 
Niles,  who  was  actively  connected  with  the  college 
from  1882  until  his  retirement  as  Professor  Emeritus 
in  1908.  Wellesley  shares  with  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  her  precious  memories  of 
this  devoted  gentleman  and  scholar.  His  wise 
planning  set  the  Department  of  Geology  and  Geog- 
raphy on  its  present  excellent  basis.  At  his  death 
in  1910,  a  valuable  legacy  of  geological  specimens 
came  to  Wellesley,  only  to  be  destroyed  in  1914  by 
the  fire.  But  his  greatest  gifts  to  the  college  are 
those  which  no  fire  can  ever  harm. 

Anne  Eugenia  Morgan,  professor  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Philosophy  from  1878  to  1900  ;  Mary  Adams 
Currier,  enthusiastic  head  of  the  Department  of 
Elocution  from  1875  to  1896,  the  founder  of  the 
Monroe  Fund  for  her  department ;    Doctor  Speak- 

154 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

man,  Doctor  Barker,  Wcllcsley's  resident  physicians 
in  the  early  days  ;  dear  Mrs.  Newman,  who  mothered 
so  many  college  generations  of  girls  at  Norumbega, 
and  will  always  be  to  them  the  ideal  house-mother, 
—  when  old  alumnae  speak  these  names,  their  hearts 
glow  with  unchanging  affection. 

But  the  most  vivid  of  all  these  pioneers,  and  one 
of  the  most  widely  known,  was  Carla  Wenckebach. 
Of  her,  Wellesley  has  a  picture  and  a  memory  which 
will  not  fade,  in  the  brilliant  biography*  by  her  col- 
league and  close  friend,  Margarethe  Miiller,  who  suc- 
ceeded her  in  the  Department  of  German.  As  an 
interpretation  of  character  and  personality,  this 
book  takes  its  place  with  Professor  Palmer's  "Life 
of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer",  among  literary  biog- 
raphies of  the  first  rank. 

Professor  Wenckebach  came  to  Wellesley  in  1883, 
and  we  have  the  story  of  her  coming,  in  her  own 
letters,  given  us  in  translation  by  Professor  Miiller. 
She  was  attending  the  Sauveur  Summer  School  of 
Languages  at  Amherst,  and  had  been  asked  to  take 
some  classes  there,  in  elementary  German,  where 
her  methods  immediately  attracted  attention  ;  and 
presently  we  find  her  writing  : 

"Hurrah!  I  have  made  a  superb  catch  —  not  a 
widower  nor  a  bachelor,  but  something  infinitely 
*  Carla  Wenckebach,   Pioneer   (Ginn  &  Co.  pub.). 

15.3 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

superior !      I     must    not    anticipate,    though,    but 
proceed  according  to  program.   .   .   . 

"The  other  day,  when  I  was  in  my  room  digging 
away  at  my  Greek  lessons,  the  landlady  brings  in 
three  visiting  cards,  remarking  that  the  three  ladies 
who  wish  to  see  me  are  in  the  reception  room.  I 
look  at  the  cards  and  read  :  Miss  Alice  Freeman, 
President  (in  German,  Rector  Magnificus)  of  Welles- 
ley  College ;  Mrs.  Durant,  Treasurer ;  and  Miss 
Denio,  Professor  of  German  Literature  at  Wellesley 
College  (Wellesley,  you  must  know,  is  the  largest 
and  most  magnificent  of  all  the  women's  colleges 
in  the  United  States).  I  immediately  comprehended 
that  these  were  three  lions  (grosse  Tiere),  and  I  be- 
gan to  have  curious  presentiments.  Fortunately,  I 
was  in  correct  dress,  so  that  I  could  rush  down  into 
our  elegant  reception  room.  Here  I  made  a  solemn 
bow,  the  three  ladies  returning  the  compliment. 
The  president,  a  lady  who  must  be  a  good  deal 
younger  than  myself,  a  real  Ph.D.  (of  Philosophy 
and  History),  told  me  that  she  had  heard  of  me  and 
therefore  wished  to  see  me  in  regard  to  a  vacancy  at 
\\  ellesley  College,  which,  according  to  the  statutes, 
must  not  be  filled  by  a  man  so  long  as  a  woman 
could  be  procured.  The  woman  she  was  looking 
for  must  be  able,  she  said,  to  give  lectures  on  German 
Literature  in  German,  and  to  expound  the  works  of 

156 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

German  writers  thoroughly ;  she  would  engage  me 
for  this  position,  she  added,  if  she  found  that  I  was 
the  right  person  for  it. 

"I  was  dumfounded  at  the  mere  suggestion  of  this 
gift  of  Heaven  coming  to  me,  for  I  had  heard  so  many 
beautiful  things  about  Wellesley  that  the  idea  of 
possibly  getting  a  position  there  totally  dazed  me. 
Summoning  up  courage,  however,  I  controlled  my 
wild  joy,  and  pulling  myself  together  with  deter- 
mination, I  gave  the  ladies  the  desired  account  of  my 
studies,  my  journalistic  work,  etc.,  whereupon  the 
president  informed  me  that  she  would  attend  my 
class  the  next  day." 

The  ordeal  was  successfully  passed,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  "head  teacher  in  the  German  Department  at 
Wellesley"  was  immediately  offered  her.  "Now 
you  think,  I  suppose,  that  I  fell  round  the  necks  of 
those  angels  of  joy  !  I  didn't  though  !"  she  blithely 
writes.  But  she  agreed  to  visit  Wellesley,  and  her 
description  of  this  visit  gives  us  old  College  Hall  in  a 
new  light. 

"The  place  in  itself  is  so  beautiful  that  we  could 
hardly  realize  its  being  merely  a  school.  The  Royal 
Palace  in  Berlin  is  small  compared  to  the  main 
building,  which  in  length  and  stateliness  of  appear- 
ance surpasses  even  the  great  Winter  Palace  in  St. 
Petersburg.     The    entrance    hall    is    decorated    with 

157 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

magnificent  palms,  with  valuable  paintings,  and 
choice  statuary.  The  walls  in  all  the  corridors  are 
covered  with  fine  engravings ;  there  are  carpets  every- 
where and  elegant  pieces  of  furniture ;  there  is  gas, 
steam  heat,  and  a  big  elevator;  everything,  down 
to  the  bathrooms,  is  princely." 

Professor  Miiller  adds,  "Of  course,  she  was  'kind 
enough'  to  accept  the  position  offered,  although  it 
was  not  especially  lucrative.  'But  what  is  a  high 
salary,'  she  exclaims,  'in  comparison  to  the  ease  and 
enthusiasm  with  which  I  can  here  plow  a  new  field 
of  work !  That,  and  the  honor  attached  to  the  posi- 
tion, are  worth  more  to  me  than  thousands  of 
dollars.  I  am  to  be  a  regular  grosses  Tier  now  my- 
self, —  what  fun,  after  having  been  a  beast  of  burden 
so  long!'" 

From  the  first,  Wellesley  recognized  her  quality, 
and  wisely  gave  it  freedom.  In  addition  to  her  work 
in  German,  we  owe  to  her  the  beginnings  of  the  De- 
partment of  Education,  through  her  lectures  on 
Pedagogy. 

Speaking  of  her  power,  Professor  Miiller  says  : 
"Truly,  as  a  teacher,  especially  a  teacher  of  youth, 
Fraulein  Wenckebach  was  unexcelled.  There  was 
that  relieving  and  inspiring,  that  broadening  and 
yet  deepening  quality  in  her  work,  that  ease  and 
grace  and  joy,  that  mark  the  work  of  the  elect  only, 

158 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

—  of  those  rare  souls  among  us  who  are  'near  the 
shaping  hand  of  the  Creator.'"  And  Fraulein 
Wenckebach  herself  said  of  her  profession:  "Every 
teacher,  every  educator,  should  above  all  be  a  guide. 
Not  one  of  those  who,  like  signposts,  stretch  their 
wooden  arms  with  pedantic  insistence  in  a  given 
direction,  but  one,  rather,  who,  after  the  manner  of 
the  heavenly  bodies,  diffusing  warmth  and  light  and 
cheer,  draws  the  young  soul  irresistibly  to  leave  its 
dark  jungles  of  prejudice  and  ignorance  for  the 
promised  land  of  wisdom  and  freedom."  And  her 
students  testify  enthusiastically  to  her  unusual  suc- 
cess.    One  of  them  writes  : 

"To  Fraulein  Wenckebach  as  a  teacher,  I  owe  more 
than  to  any  other  teacher  I  ever  had.  I  cannot  re- 
member that  she  reproved  any  student  or  that  she 
ever  directly  urged  us  to  do  our  best.  She  made  no 
efforts  to  make  her  lectures  attractive  by  witticisms, 
anecdotes,  or  entertaining  illustrations.  Yet  her 
students  worked  with  eager  faithfulness,  and  I, 
personally,  have  never  been  so  absorbed  and  in- 
spired by  any  lectures  as  by  hers.  The  secret  of  her 
power  was  not  merely  that  she  was  master  of  the 
art  of  teaching  and  knew  how  to  arouse  interest 
and  awaken  the  mind  to  independent  thought  and 
inquiry,  but  that  her  own  earnestness  and  high  pur- 
pose touched  our  lives  and  made  anything  less  than 

159 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  highest  possible  degree  of  effort  and  attainment 
seem  not  worth  while."  —  "We  girls  used  to  say  to 
each  other  that  if  we  ever  taught  we  should  want  to 
be  to  our  students  what  she  was  to  us,  and  if  they 
could  feel  as  we  felt  toward  her  and  her  work  we 
should  want  no  more.  She  demanded  the  best  of  us, 
without  demanding,  and  what  she  gave  us  was 
beyond  measure.  —  It  was  courses  like  hers  that 
made  us  feel  that  college  work  was  the  best  part  of 
college  life." 

These  are  the  things  that  teachers  care  most  to 
hear,  and  in  the  nineteen  years  of  her  service  at 
Wellesley,  there  were  many  students  eager  to  tell  her 
what  she  had  been  to  them.  She  writes  in  1886: 
"What  a  privilege  to  pour  into  the  receptive  mind  of 
young  American  girls  the  fullness  of  all  that  is  pre- 
cious about  the  German  spirit ;  and  how  enthusias- 
tically they  receive  all  I  can  give  them!" 

In  the  late  eighties  and  early  nineties  there  came 
to  the  college  a  notable  group  of  younger  women, 
destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  Wellesley's 
life  and  to  increase  her  academic  reputation  :  Mary 
Whiton  Calkins,  Margarethe  Miiller,  Adeline  B. 
Hawes,  the  able  head  of  the  Department  of  Latin, 
Katharine  M.  Edwards,  of  the  Department  of  Greek, 
Sophie  de  Chantal  Hart,  of  the  Department  of  English 
Composition,  Yida  D.  Scudder,  Margaret  Sherwood, 

100 


THE   FACULTY   AND   THEIR   METHODS 

and  Sophie  Jcwett,  of  the  Department  of  English 
Literature.  In  the  autumn  of  1909,  Sophie  Jevvett 
died,  and  never  has  the  college  been  stirred  to  more 
intimate  and  personal  grief.  So  many  poets,  so 
many  scholars,  are  not  lovable;  but  this  scholar- 
poet  quickened  every  heart  to  love  her.  To  live 
in  her  house,  to  sit  at  her  table,  to  listen  to  her 
"cadenced  voice"  in  the  classrooms,  were  privileges 
which  those  who  shared  them  will  never  forget.  Her 
colleague,  Professor  Scudder,  speaking  at  the  memo- 
rial service  in  the  College  Chapel,  said  : 

"We  shall  long  rejoice  to  dwell  on  the  ministry  of 
love  that  was  hers  to  exercise  in  so  rare  a  measure, 
through  her  unerring  and  reverent  discernment  of 
all  finest  aspects  of  beauty  ;  on  her  sensitive  alle- 
giance to  truth ;  on  the  fine  reticence  of  her  im- 
aginative passion  ;  on  that  heavenly  sympathy  and 
selflessness  of  hers,  a  selflessness  so  deep  that  it  bore 
no  trace  of  effort  or  resolute  purpose,  but  was  simply 
the  natural  instinct  of  the  soul.    .    .    . 

"Let  us  give  thanks,  then,  for  all  her  noble  and 
delicate  powers;  for  her  all-controlling  Christianity; 
for  her  subtle  rectitude  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
vision;  for  her  swift  ardor  for  all  high  causes  and 
great  dreams  ;  for  that  unbounded  tenderness  to- 
ward youth,  that  firm  and  stead\'  standard  of  scholar- 
ship, that  central  hunger  for  truth,  which  gave  high 

Kil 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

quality  to  her  teaching,  and  which  during  twenty 
years  have  been  at  the  service  of  Wellesley  College 
and  of  the  Department  of  English  Literature." 

This  very  giving  of  herself  to  the  claims  of  the 
college  hampered,  to  a  certain  extent,  her  poetic 
creativeness ;  the  volumes  that  she  has  left  are  as 
few  as  they  are  precious,  every  one  "a  pearl." 
Speaking  of  these  poems,  Miss  Scudder  says  :  "And 
in  her  own  verse,  —  do  we  not  catch  to  a  strange 
degree,  hushed  echoes  of  heavenly  music  ?  These 
lyrics  are  not  wholly  of  the  earth  :  they  vibrate 
subtly  with  what  I  can  only  call  the  sense  of  the 
Eternal.  How  beautiful,  how  consoling,  that  her 
last  book  should  have  been  that  translation,  such 
as  only  one  who  was  at  once  true  poet  and  true 
scholar  could  have  made,  of  the  sweetest  medieval 
elegy  'The  Pearl'  !"  And  Miss  Bates,  in  her  preface 
to  the  posthumous  volume  of  "Folk-Ballads  of 
Southern  Europe",  illumines  for  us  the  scholarship 
which  went  into  these  close  and  sympathetic  transla- 
tions : 

"For  the  Roumanian  ballads,  although  she  pored 
over  the  originals,  she  had  to  depend,  in  the  main, 
upon  French  translation,  which  was  usually  avail- 
able, too,  for  the  Gascon  and  Breton.  Italian,  which 
she  knew  well,  guided  her  through  obscure  dialects 
of  Italy  and  Sicily,  but  Castilian,  Portuguese,   and 

162 


THE   FACULTY  AND   THEIR   METHODS 

Catalan  she  puzzled  out  for  herself  with  such  natural 
insight  that  the  experts  to  whom  these  translations 
have  been  submitted  found  hardly  a  word  to  change. 
'After  all,'  as  she  herself  wrote,  'ballads  are  simple 
things,  and  require,  as  a  rule,  but  a  limited  vocabu- 
lary, though  a  peculiarly  idiomatic  one." 

Xot  the  least  poetic  of  her  books,  although  it  is 
written  in  prose,  is  the  delicate  interpretation  of 
St.  Francis,  written  for  children  and  called  "God's 
Troubadour." 

"  Erect,  serene,  she  came  and  went 
On  her  high  task  of  beauty  bent. 
For  us  who  knew,  nor  can  forget, 
The  echoes  of  her  laughter  yet 
Make  sudden  music  in  the  halls."* 

In  191 3,  Madame  Colin,  who  had  served  the 
college  as  head  of  the  Department  of  French  since 
1905,  died  during  the  spring  recess  after  a  three 
days'  illness.  Madame  Colin  had  studied  at  the 
University  of  Paris  and  the  Sorbonne,  and  her  ideals 
for  her  department  were  high. 

Among  Wellesley's  own  alumnae,  only  a  very  few 
who  were  officers  of  the  college  during  the  first  forty 
years  have  died.  Of  these  are  Caroline  Frances 
Pierce,  of  the  class  of  1891,  who  was  librarian  from 

*  "  In  Memoriam  :  Sophie  Jcwett."  A  poem  by  Margaret  Sherwood, 
ll'rllesley  College  Sr.cs,  May  1.  191 5. 

163 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

1903  to  1910.  To  her  wise  planning  we  owe  the 
conveniences  and  comforts  in  the  new  library  build- 
ing which  she  did  not  live  to  see  completed. 

In  1914,  the  Department  of  Greek  suffered  a  deep 
loss  in  Professor  Annie  Sybil  Montague,  of  the  class 
of  1879.  Besides  being  a  member  of  the  first  grad- 
uating class,  Miss  Montague  was  one  of  the  first  to 
receive  the  degree  of  M.A.  from  Wellesley.  In  1882, 
the  college  conferred  this  degree  for  the  first  time, 
and  Miss  Montague  was  one  of  the  two  candidates 
who  presented  themselves.  One  of  her  old  students, 
Annie  Kimball  Tuell,  of  the  class  of  1896,  herself 
an  instructor  in  the  Department  of  English  Litera- 
ture, writes  : 

I  think  Miss  Montague  would  wish  that  another  of 
her  pupils,  one  who  worked  with  her  for  an  unusually 
long  time,  should  say  —  what  can  most  simply  and  most 
warmly  and  most  gratefully  be  said  —  that  she  was  a 
good  teacher.  So  I  want  to  say  it  formally  for  myself 
and  for  all  the  others  and  for  all  the  years.  For  I  suppose 
that  if  we  were  doomed  to  go  before  our  girls  for  a  last 
judgment,  the  best  and  the  least  of  us  would  care  just  for 
the  simple  bit  of  testimony  that  we  knew  our  business  and 
attended  to  it.  And  of  all  the  good  people  who  made 
college  days  so  rich  for  me,  there  is  none  of  whom  I  could 
say  this  more  entirely  than  of  Miss  Montague. 

Often  as  I  have  caught  sight  of  her  in  the  jostling 
crowd  of  the  second  floor,  I  have  felt  a  lively  regret  that 
she  was  known  to  so  few  of  the  girls,  and  that  her  excellent 

104 


^^      4. 


2JMM4 


New      I.i'»r;ir\ 


THE   FACULTY   AND  THEIR   METHODS 

ability  to  give  zest  to  drill  and  to  stablish  fluttering  wits 
in  order,  could  not  have  a  fuller  and  freer  exercise.  In 
the  old  days  we  valued  what  she  had  to  give,  and  in  the 
usual  silent,  thankless  way,  elected  her  courses  as  long  as 
there  were  courses  to  elect;  but  we  have  had  to  teach 
many  years  since  to  know  how  special  that  gift  of  hers 
was.  Just  as  closer  acquaintance  with  herself  proved 
her  breadth  of  mind  and  sympathy  not  quite  understood 
before,  so  more  intelligent  knowledge  of  her  methods 
showed  them  to  be  broader  and  more  fundamental  than 
we  had  quite  comprehended.  With  her  handling,  rules 
and  sub-rules  ceased  to  jostle  and  confuse  one  another, 
but  grouped  themselves  in  a  simpler  harmony  which  we 
thought  a  very  beautiful  discovery,  and  grammar  took  on  a 
reasonable  unity  which  seemed  a  marvel.  So  we  took  our 
laborious  days  with  cheer  and  enjoyed  the  energy,  for  we 
quite  understood  that  our  work  would  lead  to  something. 
But  if  there  could  be  an  interchange  of  grace  and  I  could 
take  a  gift  from  Miss  Montague's  personality,  I  would 
rather  have  what  she  in  a  matter-of-fact  way  would  take 
for  granted,  but  what  is  harder  for  us  who  are  beginners 
here  to  come  by,  —  I  mean  her  altogether  tine  and  blame- 
less relation  to  her  girls  outside  the  classroom.  She  was 
a  presence  always  heartily  responsive,  but  never  unwary, 
without  the  slightest  reflection  of  her  personality  upon  us, 
with  never  a  word  too  much  of  praise  or  blame,  of  too 
much  intimacy  or  of  too  much  reserve.  She  was  a  figure 
of  familiar  friendliness,  read}-  with  sympathy  and  com- 
prehension, but  wholesome,  sound  and  sane,  without  trace 
of  sentimentality.  Above  all,  I  felt  her  a  singularly 
honorable  spirit,  toward  whom  we  always  turned  our  best 
side,  to  whom  wc  might  never  go  with  talk  wanton  or 
idle  or  unkind  or  critical,  but  always  with  our  very  precious 

105 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

thoughts  on  whatsoever  things  are  eager  and  honest  and 
kindly  and  of  good  report.  And  so  she  was  able  to  do  us 
much  good  and  no  harm  at  all.  She  can  have  had  no 
millstones  about  her  neck  to  reckon  with.   .  .  . 

Miss  Montague  used  to  have  a  little  class  in  Plato, 
and  I  have  not  forgotten  how  quietly  we  read  together 
one  day  at  the  end  of  the  Phcedo  of  the  death  of  Socrates. 
After  Miss  Montague  died,  I  turned  to  the  book  and 
found  the  place  where  the  servant  has  brought  the  cup  of 
poison,  but  Crito,  unreconciled,  wants  to  delay  even  a  little  : 

"For  the  sun,"  said  he,  "is  yet  on  the  hills,  and  many 
a  man  has  drunk  the  draught  late." 

"Yes,"  said  Socrates,  "since  they  wished  for  delay. 
But  I  do  not  think  that  I  should  gain  anything  by  drink- 
ing the  cup  a  little  later." 

In  January,  191 5,  while  this  story  of  Wellesley 
was  being  written,  Katharine  Coman,  Professor 
Emeritus  of  Economics,  went  like  a  conqueror 
to  the  triumph  of  her  death.  Miss  Coman's  power 
as  a  teacher  has  been  spoken  of  on  an  earlier  page, 
but  she  will  be  remembered  in  the  college  and  outside 
as  more  than  a  teacher.  Her  books  and  her  active 
interest  in  industrial  affairs,  her  noble  attitude 
toward  life,  all  have  had  their  share  in  informing 
and  directing  and  inspiring  the  college  she  loved. 

"A  mountain  soul,  she  shines  in  crystal  air* 
Above  the  smokes  and  clamors  of  the  town. 
Her  pure,  majestic  brows  serenely  wear 
The  stars  for  crown. 

*  From  a  poem,  "A  Mountain  Soul,"  by  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  1904. 

160 


THE    FACULTY  AND   THEIR   METHODS 

"She  comrades  with  the  child,  the  bird,  the  fern, 
Poet  and  sage  and  rustic  chimney-nook, 
But  Pomp  must  be  a  pilgrim  ere  he  earn 
Her  mountain  look. 

"  Her  mountain  look,  the  candor  of  the  snow, 
The  strength  of  folded  granite,  and  the  calm 
Of  choiring  pines,  whose  swayed  green  branches  strow 
A  healing  balm. 

*****         *         * 
"  For  lovely  is  a  mountain  rosy-lit 

With  dawn,  or  steeped  in  sunshine,  azure-hot, 
But  loveliest  when  shadows  traverse  it, 
And  stain  it  not." 


16' 


T 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    STUDENTS    AT    WORK    AND    PLAY 
I 

HE  safest  general  statement  which  can  be  made 
about  Wellesley  students  of  the  first  forty 
years  of  the  college  is  that  more  than  sixty  per  cent 
of  them  have  come  from  outside  New  England,  — 
from  the  Middle  West,  the  Far  West,  and  the  South. 
Possibly  there  is  a  Wellesley  type.  Whether  or  not 
it  could  be  differentiated  from  the  Smith,  the  Bryn 
Mawr,  the  Vassar,  and  the  Mt.  Holyoke  types,  if 
the  five  were  set  up  in  a  row,  unlabeled,  is  a  question. 
Yet  it  is  true  that  certain  recognizable  qualities  have 
developed  and  tend  to  persist  among  the  students  of 
Wellesley. 

Wellesley  girls  are  in  the  best  sense  democratic. 
There  is  no  Gold  Coast  on  the  campus  or  in  the  vil- 
lage ;  money  carries  no  social  prestige.  More  money 
is  spent,  and  more  frivolously,  than  in  the  early  days  ; 
there  are  more  girls,  and  more  rich  girls,  to  spend  it ; 
yet   the   indifference   to   it   except   as    a   mechanical 

168 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK   AND   PLAY 

convenience,  a  medium  of  exchange  and  an  opportu- 
nity for  service,  continues  to    be   nai'vely  Utopian. 

But  money  is  not  the  only  touchstone  of  demo- 
cratic sensitiveness.  At  Wellesley  there  has  always 
been  uneasiness  at  the  hint  of  unequal  opportunity. 
When  the  college  grew  so  large  that  membership  in 
the  six  societies  took  on  the  aspect  of  special  privilege, 
restiveness  was  as  marked  among  the  privileged  as 
among  the  unprivileged,  and  more  outspoken.  The 
first  result  was  the  Barn  Swallows,  a  social  and 
dramatic  society  to  which  every  student  in  college 
might  belong  if  she  wished.  The  second  was  the 
reorganization  of  the  six  societies  on  a  more  demo- 
cratic and  intellectual  basis,  to  prevent  "rushing", 
favoritism,  cliques,  and  all  the  ills  that  mutually 
exclusive  clubs  are  heir  to.  The  agitation  for  these 
reforms  came  from  the  societies  themselves,  and  they 
endured  with  Spartan  determination  the  months  of 
transitional  misery  and  readjustment  which  their 
generous  idealism  brought  upon  their  heads. 

Enthusiasm  for  equality  also  enters  into  the 
students'  attitude  toward  "the  academic",  and  like 
most  enthusiasts,  from  the  French  Revolution  down, 
they  arc  capable  of  confusing  the  issue.  In  the  early 
days,  thc\'  were  not  allowed  to  know  their  marks, 
lest  the  knowledge  should  rouse  an  unworthy  .spirit 
of    competition ;    and    of    all    the    rules    instituted 

169 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

by  the  founder,  this  is  the  one  which  they  have  been 
most  unwilling  to  see  abolished.  Silent  Time  they 
relinquished  with  relief;  Domestic  Work  they 
abandoned  without  a  pang  ;  Bible  Study  shrank  from 
four  to  three  years  and  from  three  to  two,  and  then 
to  one,  almost  without  their  noticing  it.  But  when, 
in  1 901,  the  Honor  Scholarships  were  established,  a 
storm  of  protest  burst  among  the  undergraduates, 
and  thundered  and  lightened  for  several  weeks  in 
the  pages  of  College  News.  And  not  the  least 
vehement  of  these  protestants  were  the  "Honor 
girls"  themselves.  To  see  their  names  posted  in  an 
alphabetical  list  of  twenty  or  more  students  who  had 
achieved,  all  unwittingly,  a  certain  number  of  A's  and 
B's  throughout  their  course,  seems  to  have  caused 
them  a  mortification  more  keen  than  that  experienced 
by  St.  Simeon  Stylites  on  his  pillar.  But  that  the 
college  ideal  should  be  "degraded "  pained  them  most. 
There  was  something  very  touching  and  encourag- 
ing about  this  wrong-headed,  right-hearted  outburst. 
After  the  usual  Wellesley  fashion,  freedom  of  speech 
prevailed  ;  everybody  spoke  her  mind.  In  the  end 
"sweetness  and  light"  dispersed  the  mists  of  senti- 
ment which  had  assumed  that  to  acknowledge  in- 
equality of  achievement  was  to  abolish  equality  of 
opportunity,  and  burned  away  the  ethical  haziness 
which  had  magnified  mediocrity  ;   the  crusaders  real- 

170 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK  AND   PLAY 

izcd  that  the  pseudo-compassion  which  would  con- 
ceal the  idle  and  the  stupid,  the  industrious  and  the 
brilliant,  in  a  common  obscurity,  is  impracticable, 
since  the  fool  and  the  genius  cannot  long  be  hid, 
and  unfair,  since  the  ant  and  the  grasshopper 
would  enjoy  a  like  reward,  and  no  democracy  has 
yet  claimed  that  those  who  do  not  work  shall  eat. 
When  in  191 2  the  faculty  at  last  decided  to  inform 
the  students  as  to  all  their  marks,  the  news  was 
received  with  no  protest  and  with  an  intelligent 
appreciation  of  the  intellectual  and  ethical  value  of 
the  new  privilege. 

The  college  was  founded  "for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  service  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  and  by  the 
education  and  culture  of  women";  and  Wellesley 
girls  are,  in  the  best  sense,  religious.  There  has 
been  no  time  in  the  first  fort}'  years  when  the  under- 
graduates were  not  earnestly  and  genuinely  pre- 
occupied with  religious  questions  and  religious  living. 
One  recognizes  this  not  only  by  the  obvious  and 
commonplace  signs,  such  as  the  interest  in  the  Chris- 
tian Association,  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement, 
the  Missionary  Field,  Silver  Bay,  manifested  by  the 
conventional  Christian  students;  it  is  evident  also 
in  the  hunger  and  thirst  oi  the  sincere  rebels,  in  such 
signs  as  the  ''Heretics'  Bible  Class",  a  volunteer 
group  which  existed  for  a  year  or  two  in  the  second 

171 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

decade  of  the  century,  and  which  has  had  its  proto- 
types at  intervals  throughout  the  forty  years.  One 
sees  it  in  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  of  the  students 
who  follow  Professor  Case's  course  in  the  Philosophy 
of  Hegel ;  in  the  reverence  and  love  with  which  girls 
of  all  creeds  and  of  none  speak  of  the  Chapel  services, 
and  attend  them.  When  two  thirds  of  the  girls  go 
voluntarily  and  as  a  matter  of  course  to  an  Ash 
Wednesday  evening  service,  when  Jew  and  Roman 
Catholic  alike  testify  eagerly  to  the  value  of  the 
morning  Chapel  service  in  their  spiritual  develop- 
ment, it  is  evident  that  the  religious  life  is  genuine 
and  healthy.  And  it  finds  its  outlet  in  the  passion  for 
social  service  which,  if  statistics  can  be  trusted, 
inspires  so  many  of  the  alumnae.  The  old-fashioned 
Puritan,  if  she  still  exists,  may  tremble  for  the  souls 
of  the  Wellesley  girls  who  crowd  by  hundreds  into 
the  "matinee  train"  on  Saturday  afternoon,  but  let 
us  hope  that  she  would  be  reassured  to  find  the  volun- 
tary Bible  and  Mission  Study  classes  attended,  and 
even  conducted,  by  many  of  these  same  girls.  She 
might  grieve  over  the  years  of  Bible  Study  lost 
to  the  curriculum,  and  over  the  introduction  of 
modern  methods  of  Biblical  Higher  Criticism  into  the 
classroom  ;  but  surely  she  would  be  comforted  to  see 
how  the  students  have  arisen  to  the  rescue  of  the 
devotional  study  of  the  Scriptures,  with  their  volun- 

172 


; 


^v, 


"s 


I 'I  ic    (  hapt 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK  AND   PLAY 

tary  classes  enthusiastically  maintained.  It  might 
even  touch  her  sense  of  humor. 

As  the  college  has  grown  larger,  undoubtedly  more 
and  more  girls  have  come  to  Wcllesley  for  other  than 
intellectual  reasons,  —  because  it  is  "the  thing"  to 
go  to  college,  or  for  "  the  life."  But  it  is  reassuring  to 
find  that  the  reactions  of  "the  life"  upon  them  always 
quicken  them  to  a  deeper  respect  for  intellectual 
values.  The  "academic"  holds  first  place  in  the 
Wcllesley  life,  not  perfunctorily  but  vitally.  The 
students  themselves  are  swift  to  recognize  and  rebuke, 
usually  in  the  "  Free  Press  "  or  the  "  Parliament  of 
Fools",  of  the  College  News,  any  signs  of  intellectual 
indifference  or  laxity.  Wcllesley,  like  Harvard  and 
other  large  colleges,  has  its  uninspiring  level  stretches 
of  mediocrity  ;  but  it  has  its  little  leaping  hills,  its 
soaring  peaks  as  well.  Every  class  has  its  band  of 
devoted  students  for  whom  the  things  of  the  mind 
arc  supreme  ;  every  class  has  its  scattering  of  youth- 
ful scholars  to  give  distinction  to  the  academic 
landscape. 

It  would  be  absurd  and  useless  to  deny  that 
Wcllesley  girls  have  their  defects  ;  the}"  are  of  the 
sort  that  press  for  recognition;  defects  of  manner, 
and  manners,  which  arc  not  confined  to  the  students 
of  any  one  college,  or  even  to  college  students,  but 
are  due  in  a   measure   to  the  general   change  in  our 

ITS 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

attitude  towards  women,  and  to  the  new  freedom  in 
which  they  all  alike  share.  It  is  true  that,  to  a 
degree,  the  graces  and  reserves  which  give  charm  and 
finish  to  daily  living  are  sacrificed  to  the  more  push- 
ing claims  of  study  and  athletics,  in  college.  It  is 
true  that  the  unmodulated  voice,  the  mushy  enuncia- 
tion, the  unrestrained  attitude,  the  slouchy  clothes, 
too  often  go  unrebuked  in  classroom  and  dormitory, 
where  it  seems  to  be  nobody's  business  to  rebuke 
them  ;  but  it  is  also  usually  true  that,  before  they 
ever  came  to  college,  that  voice,  that  attitude,  those 
clothes,  went  unrebuked  and  even  unheeded,  at 
home  or  in  the  girls'  camp,  where  it  emphatically 
was  somebody's  business  to  heed  and  rebuke. 

But  it  is  the  public  which  sees  the  worst  of  it, 
especially  on  trains,  where  groups  of  young  voices 
or  extreme  fashions  in  dress  become  quite  uninten- 
tionally conspicuous.  Experienced  from  within,  the 
life,  despite  its  many  little  roughnesses,  its  small 
lapses  in  taste,  is  gracious  and  gentle,  selfless  in 
unobtrusive  ways,  and  genuinely  kind. 

Religious,  democratic,  intellectually  serious  is  our 
Wellesley  girl,  and  last  but  not  least,  she  is  a  lover  of 
beauty.  How  could  she  fail  to  be  ?  How  many 
times,  in  early  winter  twilights,  has  she  come  over  the 
stile  into  the  Stone  Hall  meadow,  and  stood  long 
moments,    hushed,    bespelled,    by   the   tranquil   pale 

174 


THE   STUDENTS   AT  WORK   AND   PLAY 

loveliness  of  the  lake,  the  dusky,  rimming  hills,  the 
bare,  slim  blackness  of  twig  and  bough  embroidering 
the  silver  sky,  —  the  whole  luminous  etching  ? 
How  often,  mid-morning  in  spring,  has  she  sat  with 
her  book  in  a  green  shade  west  of  the  library,  and 
lifted  her  eyes  to  see  above  the  daffodil-bank  of 
Longfellow's  fountain  the  blue  lake  waters  laughing 
between  the  upspringing  trunks  of  the  tall  oak 
trees  ?  Wherever  there  are  Wellesley  women,  when 
spring  is  waking,  —  in  Switzerland,  in  Sicily,  in 
Japan,  in  England,  —  they  are  remembering  the 
Wellesley  spring,  that  pageant  of  young  green  of 
lawns  and  hills  and  tenderest  flushing  rose  in  baby 
oak  leaves  and  baby  maples,  that  twinkling  dance  of 
birches  and  of  poplars,  that  splendor  of  the  youth 
of  the  year  amid  which  young  maidens  shone  and 
blossomed,  starring  the  campus  among  the  other 
spring  flowers.  And  are  there  Wellesley  women  any- 
where in  the  autumn  who  do  not  think  of  Wellesley 
and  four  autumns  ?  Of  the  long  russet  vistas  of  the 
west  woods  ?  Of  the  army  with  banners,  scarlet 
and  golden,  and  bronze  and  russet  and  rose,  that 
marched  and  trumpeted  around  Lake  Waban's 
streaming  Persian  pattern  of  shadows  ?  When  you 
speak  to  a  Wellesley  girl  of  her  Alma  Mater,  her 
eyes  widen  with  the  lover's  look,  and  you  know  that 
she  is  seeing  a  vision  of  pure  beauty. 

175 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

II 

In  1876,  the  students,  shocked  and  grieved  by  the 
discovery  of  one  of  those  cases  of  cheating  with 
which  every  college  has  to  deal  from  time  to  time, 
met  together,  and  made  a  very  stringent  rule  to  be 
enforced  by  themselves.  This  "law",  enacted  on 
February  18,  1876,  marks  the  first  step  toward 
Student  Government  at  Wellesley ;  it  reads  as 
follows  : 

"The  students  of  Wellesley  College  unanimously 
decree  as  a  perpetual  law  of  the  college  that  no 
student  shall  use  a  translation  or  key  in  the  study 
of  any  lesson  or  in  any  review,  recitation,  or  examina- 
tion. Every  student  who  may  enter  the  college 
shall  be  in  honor  bound  to  expose  every  violation  of 
this  law.  If  any  student  shall  be  known  to  violate 
this  law,  she  shall  be  warned  by  a  committee  of  the 
students  and  publicly  exposed.  If  the  offense  be 
repeated  the  students  shall  demand  her  immediate 
expulsion  as  unworthy  to  remain  a  member  of 
Wellesley  College."  It  is  signed  by  the  presidents  of 
the  two  classes,  1879  and  1880,  then  in  college. 

Until  1 88 1,  when  the  Courant,  the  first  Wellesley 
periodical,  gave  the  students  opportunity  to  express 
their  minds  concerning  matters  of  college  policy, 
we  have  no  definite  record  of  further  steps  toward 

176 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

self-government  on  the  part  of  the  undergraduates. 
The  disciplinary  methods  of  those  early  years  are 
amusingly  described  by  Mary  C.  Wiggin,  of  the 
class  of  '85,  who  tells  us  that  authority  was  vested  in 
four  bodies,  the  president,  the  doctor,  the  corridor 
teacher  and  the  head  of  the  Domestic  Department. 

"The  president  was  responsible  for  our  going  out 
and  our  coming  in.  The  'office'  might  give  per- 
mission to  leave  town,  but  all  tardiness  in  returning 
must  be  explained  to  the  president.  How  timidly 
four  of  us  came  to  Miss  Freeman  in  my  sophomore 
year  to  explain  that  the  freshman's  mother  had 
kept  us  to  supper  after  our  'permitted'  drive  on 
Monday  afternoon  !  What  an  occasion  it  gave  her 
to  caution  us  as  to  sophomore  influence  over  fresh- 
men ! 

"Very  infrequent  were  our  journeys  to  Boston  in 
those  days,  theaters  were  forbidden.  Once  during 
my  four  years  I  saw  Booth  in  'Macbeth'  during  a 
Christmas  vacation,  salving  my  conscience  with  a 
liberal  interpretation  of  the  phrase,  'while  connected 
with  the  college',  trying  to  forget  the  parting  in- 
junction, "Remember,  girls,  that  You  are  Wellesley 
College.'    .    .    . 

"  In  the  old  days  we  were  seated  alphabetically  in 
church  and  chapel,  where  attendance  was  kept  in 
each   'section'   by  one  of  its   members.      A  growing 

177 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

laxity  permitted  you  to  sit  out  of  place  on  Sunday 
evenings,  provided  that  you  reported  to  your  section 
girl.  Otherwise  you  would  be  called  to  the  office 
to  explain  your  absence.   .   .  . 

"Very  slowly  did  the  idea  dawn  upon  me  that 
there  was  a  faculty  back  of  all  these  very  pleasant 
personal  relations." 

But  in  the  late  '8o's,  the  advance  toward  student 
self-government  begins  to  be  traceable,  slowly  but 
surely.  In  the  spring  of  1887,  on  the  initiative  of 
the  faculty,  the  first  formal  conference  between 
representatives  of  faculty  and  students  was  called, 
to  consider  questions  of  class  organization.  Other 
conferences  took  place  at  irregular  intervals  during 
the  next  seven  years,  as  occasion  arose,  and  these 
often  led  to  new  legislation.  The  subjects  discussed 
were,  the  Magazine,  the  Legenda,  Athletics,  the 
Junior  Prom.  In  the  autumn  of  1888,  students  were 
first  allowed  to  hand  in  excuses  for  absence  from 
college  classes ;  the  responsibility  for  giving  a 
"true,  valid  and  signed  excuse"  resting  with  the 
individual  student.  In  this  same  autumn  the  law 
forbidding  eating  between  meals  was  repealed,  but 
students  were  still  not  permitted  to  keep  eatables 
in  their  rooms. 

Articles  on  college  courtesy,  quiet  in  the  library, 
articles    for   and    against   Domestic  Work,  begin  to 

178 


THE   STUDENTS   AT  WORK  AND   PLAY 

appear  in  the  Courant  and  the  Prelude  in  1888  and 
1889.  In  May,  1890,  we  learn  of  a  Students'  Associa- 
tion, which  was  the  means  of  obtaining  class  bulletin 
boards  in  the  autumn  of  1890.  From  this  time  also, 
agitation  on  all  topics  of  interest  to  the  students  is 
more  openly  active.  In  September,  1891,  the  faculty 
consent  to  allow  library  books  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
library  on  Saturday  afternoon  for  use  over  Sunday. 
In  October,  1891,  we  find  that  the  Students'  Asso- 
ciation is  to  offer  a  medium  for  discussion  and  to 
foster  a  scholarly  spirit.  In  December,  1891,  a  plea 
appears  in  the  Prelude  for  occasional  conferences 
between  faculty  and  students  on  problems  of  college 
policy.  In  1892,  we  read  that  the  individual  students 
are  allowed  to  choose  a  church  in  the  village  and 
attend  it  on  Sundays,  if  they  so  desire,  instead  of 
attending  the  College  Chapel.  In  1892  also,  we  have 
the  agitation,  in  the  Wellesley  Magazine,  for  the 
wearing  of  cap  and  gown,  and  in  this  year  senior 
privileges  are  extended,  and  the  responsibility  for 
absence  from  class  appointments  rests  with  the 
student.  In  November,  1892,  the  Magazine  prints 
an  article  on  Student  Government  by  Professor  Case 
of  the  Department  of  Philosophy.  And  the  cap 
and  gown  census  and  discussion  go  gaylyon.  Early 
in  1893,  there  is  a  discussion  of  Student  Government. 
In  the  spring  of  this  year,  there  is  an  agitation  for 

179 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

voluntary  chapel.  In  September,  the  seniors  begin 
to  wear  the  cap  and  gown  throughout  the  year.  The 
year  1894  sees  Silent  Time  abolished  ;  and  agitation, 
—  always  courteous  and  friendly,  —  goes  on  for 
Student  Government,  for  the  opening  of  the  library 
on  Sunday,  for  the  abolition  of  Domestic  Work. 
In  1893  or  1894,  Professor  Burrell,  as  head  of  College 
Hall,  introduces  the  custom  of  having  students  sign 
for  overtime  when  they  wish  to  study  after  ten 
o'clock  at  night.  In  1894,  excuses  for  absence  from 
chapel  and  classes  are  no  longer  required.  In  the 
spring  of  1894,  at  the  request  of  undergraduates,  a 
conference  with  the  faculty,  in  a  series  of  meetings, 
considers  matters  of  interest  in  student  life.  Be- 
ginning with  May,  1895,  the  library  is  opened  on 
Sundays. 

It  is  significant  to  note,  in  looking  over  these  old 
files  of  college  magazines,  that  when  the  students' 
interest  waned,  the  faculty  were  always  ready  to 
administer  the  necessary  prod.  Not  all  the  articles 
in  favor  of  Student  Government  are  written  by 
students.  President  Shafer  herself  gave  the  strong- 
est early  impetus  to  the  movement,  although  not 
through  the  press.  In  1899,  Professor  Woolley,  as 
head  01  College  Hall,  instituted  a  House  Organ- 
ization, which  as  an  experiment  in  Student  Govern- 
ment   among    the    students    then    living    in    College 

180 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK  AND    PLAY 

Hall  was  a  complete  success.  In  June,  1900,  we 
find  arrangements  made  for  a  Faculty-Student 
Conference,  to  be  held  during  the  autumn  months  ; 
and  this  bod}'  met  five  times.  Its  establishment 
did  a  great  deal  in  paving  the  way  to  mutual  under- 
standing and  trust  when  the  definite  question  of 
Student  Government  was  approached. 

On  March  6,  1901,  at  a  mass  meeting  of  the  stu- 
dents, and  after  a  spirited  discussion,  it  was  voted 
that  the  Academic  Council  be  petitioned  to  give 
self-government  to  the  students  in  all  matters  not 
academic.  This  date  is  kept  every  year  as  the 
birthday  of  Student  Government.  At  another  mass 
meeting,  on  April  9,  Miss  Katharine  Lord,  the 
President  of  the  Student  Association  of  Bryn  Mawr, 
spoke  to  the  college  on  Student  Government,  and 
on  April  2j,  there  was  still  another  mass  meeting. 
The  student  committee  appointed  to  confer  with 
the  committee  from  the  faculty  had  for  its  chair- 
man Mary  Leavens,  of  the  class  of  1901,  student 
head  of  College  Hall;  Miss  Pendleton,  at  that  time 
secretary  of  the  college,  was  the  chairman  of  the 
faculty  committee.  Student  Government  found  in 
her,  from  the  beginning,  a  convinced  and  able 
champion.  In  April,  the  constitution  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  committee  of  the  faculty,  and  in  May 
the    constitution    and    the    agreement,    after    careful 

LSI 


THE   STORY  OF   AYELLESLEY 

consideration,  were  submitted  to  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  On  May  29, 
an  all  day  election  for  president  was  held,  resulting 
in  the  choice  of  Frances  L.  Hughes,  1902,  as  first 
president  of  the  Student  Government  Association 
of  Wellesley  College.  On  June  6,  the  report  was 
adopted  and  the  agreement  was  signed  by  the  presi- 
dent and  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the 
president  of  the  college.  On  June  7,  in  the  presence 
of  the  faculty  and  the  whole  student  body,  in  chapel, 
the  agreement  was  read  and  signed  on  behalf  of  the 
faculty  by  the  secretary  of  the  college.  The  cere- 
mony was  impressive  and  memorable  in  its  sim- 
plicity and  solemnity.  After  Miss  Pendleton  had 
signed  her  name,  the  students  rose  and  remained 
•standing  while  the  agreement  was  signed  by  Frances 
L.  Hughes,  President  of  the  Association  for  1901 
and  1902,  May  Mathews,  President  of  the  Class  of 
1902,  Margaret  C.  Mills,  President  of  the  Class  of 
1901,  and  Mary  Leavens,  President  of  the  House 
Council  of  College  Hall.  The  Scripture  lesson  was 
taken  from  I.  Corinthians,  "Other  foundation  can 
no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,"  and  the  recessional 
was,  ''How  firm  a  foundation." 

The  Association  is  organized  with  a  president  and 
vice  president,  chosen  from  the  senior  class,  and  a 
secretary   and   a   treasurer  from  the  juniors  ;    these 

182 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK  AND   PLAY 

are  all  elected  by  the  whole  undergraduate  body. 
There  is  an  Executive  Board  whose  members  are 
the  president,  vice  president,  secretary  and  treasurer 
of  the  association,  the  house  presidents  and  their 
proctors,  and  a  representative  from  each  of  the  four 
classes,  elected  by  the  class.  The  government  is  in 
all  essentials  democratic.  The  rules  are  made  and 
executed  by  the  whole  body  of  students;  but  all 
legislation  of  the  students  is  subject  to  approval  by 
the  college  authorities,  and  if  any  question  arises  as 
to  whether  or  not  a  subject  is  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  association,  it  is  referred  to  a  joint  committee 
ol  seven,  made  up  of  a  standing  committee  of  three 
appointed  by  the  faculty,  a  standing  committee  of 
three  appointed  by  the  association,  and  the  presi- 
dent of  the  college. 

In  intrusting  to  the  association  the  management 
of  all  matters  not  strictly  academic  concerning  the 
conduct  of  students  in  their  college  life,  the  college 
authorities  reserve  the  right  to  regulate  all  athletic 
events  and  formal  entertainments,  all  societies, 
clubs  and  other  organizations,  all  Society  houses, 
and  all  publications,  all  matters  pertaining  to 
public  health  and  safety  and  to  household  manage- 
ment and  the  use  of  college  property.  The  students 
are  responsible  for  all  matters  of  registration  and 
absence   from   college,    for   the   regulation   of  travel, 

183 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

permission  for  Sunday  callers,  rules  governing 
chaperonage,  the  maintenance  of  quiet,  the  general 
conduct  of  students  on  the  campus  and  in  the  village. 
It  is  they  who  have  abolished  the  "ten-o'clock- 
bedtime  rule";  it  is  they  who  have  decreed  that 
students  shall  not  go  to  Boston  on  Sundays,  but  this 
rule  is  relaxed  for  seniors,  who  are  allowed  two 
Boston  Sundays,  in  which  they  may  attend  church 
or  an  afternoon  sacred  concert  in  the  city.  If  a 
student  wishes  to  spend  Sunday  away  from  college, 
she  must  go  away  on  Saturday  and  remain  until 
Monday. 

Questions  of  minor  discipline,  such  as  the  enforc- 
ing of  the  rule  of  quiet  in  the  dormitories,  are  handled 
by  the  students  ;  not  yet,  it  must  be  confessed,  with 
complete  success,  as  the  quiet  in  the  dormitories  — 
especially  the  freshman  houses  —  falls  short  of 
that  holy  calm  which  studious  girls  have  a  right  to 
claim.  Serious  misdemeanors  are  of  course  in  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  president  of  the  college  and  the 
faculty.  One  very  important  college  duty,  the 
proctoring  of  examinations,  which  would  seem  to  be 
an  entirely  legitimate  function  of  the  Student 
Government  Association,  the  students  themselves 
have  not  as  yet  been  willing  to  assume.  During 
the  years  when  the  freshmen,  sometimes  as  many 
as  four  hundred,  were  housed  in  the  village  because 

184 


Wild,  r    II; 


THE   STUDENTS  AT   WORK  AND   PLAY 

of  the  crowded  conditions  on  the  campus,  the 
burden  upon  the  Student  Government  Association, 
and  especially  upon  the  vice  president  and  her 
senior  assistants  who  had  charge  of  the  village 
work,  was,  in  the  opinion  of  many  alumnae  and 
some  members  of  the  faculty,  heavier  than  they 
should  have  been  expected  to  shoulder ;  for,  when 
all  is  said,  students  do  come  to  college  primarily  to 
pursue  the  intellectual  life,  rather  than  to  be  the 
monitors  of  undergraduate  behavior.  Fortunately, 
with  the  endowment  of  the  college  and  the  building 
of  new  dormitories  on  the  campus,  the  village  prob- 
lem will  be  eliminated.  The  students  themselves 
are  unanimously  enthusiastic  concerning  Student 
Government,  and  the  history  of  the  association 
since  its  establishment  reveals  an  earnest  and  in- 
creasingly intelligent  acceptance  of  responsibility 
on  the  part  of  the  student  body.  From  the  begin- 
ning the  ultimate  success  of  the  movement  has  been 
almost  unquestioned,  and  the  association  is  now  as 
stable  an  institution,  apparently,  as  the  Academic 
Council  or  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

Ill 

The  most  important  of  the  associations  which 
bring  Wcllesley  students  into  touch  with  the  out- 
side   world    are    the    Christian    Association    and    the 

185 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

College  Settlements  Association.  These  two,  with 
the  Consumers'  League  and  the  Equal  Suffrage 
League  —  also  flourishing  organizations  —  help  to 
foster  the  spirit  of  service  which  has  characterized 
the  college  from  its  earliest  days. 

The  Christian  Association  did  not  come  into 
existence  until  1884,  but  in  the  very  first  year  of 
the  college  a  Missionary  Society  was  formed,  which 
gave  "Missionary  concerts"  on  Sunday  evenings 
in  the  chapel,  and  adopted  as  its  college  missionary, 
Gertrude  Chandler  (Wyckoff)  of  the  class  of  1879, 
who  went  out  to  the  mission  field  in  India  in  1880. 
In  the  first  decade  also  a  Temperance  Society  was 
formed,  and  noted  speakers  on  temperance  visited 
the  college.  But  in  1883,  in  order  to  unify  the 
religious  work,  a  Christian  Association  was  pro- 
posed. The  initiative  seems  to  have  come  from  the 
faculty,  and  this  was  natural,  as  the  little  group  of 
teachers  from  the  University  of  Michigan  —  Presi- 
dent Freeman,  Professor  Chapin  of  the  Department 
of  Greek,  Professor  Coman  of  Economics,  Professor 
Case  of  Philosophy,  Professor  Chandler  of  Mathe- 
matics, —  had  had  a  hand  in  developing  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  at  Ann  Arbor. 

The  first  meeting  of  this  Association  was  held  in 
College  Hall  Chapel,  October  8,  1884,  and  we  read 
that  it  was  formed  "for  the  purpose  of  promoting 

186 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

Christian  fellowship  as  a  means  of  individual  growth 
in  character,  and  of  securing,  by  the  union  of  the 
various  societies  already  existing,  a  more  systematic 
arrangement  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  college  by 
officers  and  students,  for  the  cause  of  Christ." 

Those  who  joined  the  association  pledged  them- 
selves to  declare  their  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  as  their 
Lord  and  Savior  and  to  dedicate  their  lives  to  His 
service.  They  promised  to  abide  by  the  laws  of 
the  association  and  seek  its  prosperity ;  ever  to 
strive  to  live  a  life  consistent  with  its  character  as  a 
Christian  Association,  and,  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  to 
engage  in  its  activities ;  to  cultivate  a  Christian 
fellowship  with  its  members,  and  as  opportunity 
offered,  to  endeavor  to  lead  others  to  a  Christian 
life.  Wellesley  is  rightly  proud  of  the  Christian 
simplicity  and  inclusiveness  of  this  pledge. 

The  work  of  the  association  included  Bible  study, 
devotional  meetings,  individual  work,  and  the 
development  of  missionary  interest.  Three  hundred 
and  seventy  signed  as  charter  members,  and  Pro- 
fessor Stratton  of  the  Department  of  Rhetoric  was 
the  first  president.  The  students  held  most  of  the 
offices,  but  it  was  not  until  1894  that  a  student 
president,  —  Cornelia  Huntington  of  the  class  of 
1895  -was  elected.  Since  then,  this  office  has 
always  been  held  by  a  student.      From  its  inception 

187 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

the  association  received  the  greatest  help  and  in- 
spiration from  Mrs.  Durant,  for  many  years  the 
President  of  the  Boston  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association,  which  was  one  of  the  first  of  its  kind. 

Early  in  its  career,  the  Wellesley  Association 
adopted,  besides  its  foreign  missionary,  a  home  mis- 
sionary, and  later  a  city  missionary  who  worked  in 
New  York.  An  Indian  committee  was  formed, 
and  Thanksgiving  entertainments  were  given  at  the 
Woman's  Reformatory  in  Sherborn  and  the  Ded- 
ham  Asylum  for  released  prisoners.  In  this  prison 
work,  the  college  always  had  the  fullest  help  and 
sympathy  of  Mrs.  Durant.  The  Wellesley  Student 
Volunteer  Band  was  organized  May  26,  1890,  and 
in  191 5  there  were  known  to  be  about  one  hundred 
Wellesley  girls  in  the  foreign  field,  and  there  were 
probably  others  of  whom  the  college  was  uninformed. 
It  is  a  noble  and  inspiring  record. 

In  1905,  after  the  union  of  many  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Associations  and  the  formation 
of  the  National  Board,  Wellesley  was  urged  to 
affiliate  herself  with  the  National  Association,  but 
she  was  unwilling  to  narrow  her  own  pledge,  to  meet 
the  conditions  of  the  National  Board.  She  felt 
that  she  better  served  the  cause  of  Christian  Unity 
by  admitting  to  her  fellowship  a  wider  range  of 
Christians,  so-called,  than  the  National  Board  was 

188 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK  AND   PLAY 

at  that  time  prepared  to  tolerate;  and  she  was 
also  more  or  less  fearful  of  too  much  dictation.  It 
was  not  until  191 3,  at  the  Fourth  Biennial  Conven- 
tion of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations, 
held  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  that  Wellesley  was  re- 
ceived into  the  National  organization  ;  and  she  came 
retaining  her  own  pledge  and  her  own  constitution. 
In  the  old  days,  the  Christian  Association  was  the 
stronghold  of  the  dying  Evangelicalism,  and  was 
looked  on  with  distaste  by  many  of  the  radical  stu- 
dents ;  but  of  late  years,  its  tone  and  its  method 
have  changed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  modern  girl, 
and  it  has  become  a  power  throughout  the  college. 
The  annual  report  for  1913-1914  shows  a  total 
membership  of  1297.  The  association  carries  on 
Mission  Study  Classes;  Bible  Classes  which  the 
students  teach,  under  the  direction  of  volunteers 
from  the  faculty,  in  such  subjects  as  "The  Social 
Teachings  of  Jesus",  "The  Ideals  of  Israel's  Leaders 
as  Forces  in  Our  Lives",  "Christ  in  Everyday 
Life";  "General  Aid"  work,  for  girls  who  need  to 
earn  money  in  college.  Its  Social  Committee  is 
active  among  freshmen  and  new  students.  Of 
its  special  committees,  the  one  on  Conferences  and 
Conventions  plays  an  important  part  in  quickening 
the  interest  in  Silver  Bay,  and  the  one  on  "  the 
College    in    Spain"    presents    the    needs    and    claims 

189 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

of  the  International  Institute  for  Girls  at  Madrid. 
Besides  its  regular  meetings,  the  Christian  Associa- 
tion now  has  charge  of  the  Lenten  services,  and  this 
effort  to  deepen  the  devotional  life  of  the  college  has 
met  with  a  swift  response  from  the  students.  Dur- 
ing 1913-1914,  in  Lent,  the  chapel  was  open  every 
afternoon  for  meditation  and  prayer,  and  cards 
with  selected  prayers  for  each  day  were  furnished 
to  all  who  cared  to  use  them.  Unquestionably, 
Wellesley  possesses  no  student  organization  more 
living  and  more  life-giving  than  its  Christian  Asso- 
ciation. 

Four  years  after  the  foundation  of  the  Christian 
Association,  Wellesley  had  opened  her  heart  and 
her  mind  to  the  College  Settlement  idea.  The  move- 
ment, as  is  well  known,  originated  in  the  late  '8o's 
in  America.  At  the  same  time  that  Jane  Addams 
and  Ellen  Gates  Starr  were  starting  Hull  House  in 
Chicago,  a  group  of  Smith  College  alumnae,  chief 
among  whom  were  Yida  D.  Scudder,  Clara  French, 
Helen  Rand  (Thayer),  and  Jean  Fine  (Spahr),  was 
pressing  for  the  establishment  of  a  house  in  the 
East.  And  the  idea  was  understood  and  fostered 
by  Wellesley  about  as  soon  as  by  Smith,  for  it  was 
interpreted  at  Wellesley  by  Professor  Scudder,  who 
became  a  member  of  the  college  faculty,  as  instruc- 
tor in   English   Literature,   in   the  autumn  of    1887. 

190 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

In  1889,  the  Courant  printed  an  article  on  College 
Settlements,  and  students  of  the  later  '8o's  and 
early  'cjo's  will  never  forget  the  ardor  and  excite- 
ment of  those  days  when  Wellesley  was  bearing  her 
part  in  starting  what  was  to  be  one  of  the  im- 
portant movements  for  social  service  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  All  her  early  traditions  and  activi- 
ties made  the  college  swift  to  understand  and  wel- 
come this  new  idea. 

From  the  beginning,  the  social  impulse  has  been 
inherent  in  Wellesley,  and  settlement  work  was 
native  to  her.  Professor  Whiting  tells  us  that 
there  used  to  be  a  shoe  factory  in  Wellesley  Village, 
about  where  the  Eliot  now  stands  ;  that  the  students 
became  interested  in  the  girl  operatives,  most  of 
whom  lived  in  South  Natick,  and  that  they  started 
a  factory  girls'  club  which  met  every  Saturday 
evening  for  years,  and  was  led  by  college  girls.  In 
Charles  River  Village,  also  at  that  time  a  factory 
town,  Mr.  Durant  held  evangelistic  services  during 
one  winter,  and  ''teacher  specials"  used  to  help 
him,  and  to  teach  in  the  Sunday  School. 

In  1 890-1 891,  probably  because  of  the  settle- 
ment impulse,  work  among  the  maids  in  the  college 
was  set  going  by  the  Christian  Association.  A 
maids'  parlor  was  furnished  under  the  old  gym- 
nasium, and  classes  for  the  maids  were  started. 

191 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

In  1 89 1,  the  Wellesley  Chapter  of  the  College 
Settlements  Association  was  organized.  It  was 
Professor  Katharine  Lee  Bates  (Wellesley  '80)  who 
first  suggested  the  plan  for  an  intercollegiate  organi- 
zation, with  chapters  in  the  different  colleges  for 
women ;  and  her  friend  Adaline  Emerson  (Thomp- 
son), a  Wellesley  graduate  of  the  class  of  '80,  was 
the  first  president  of  the  association.  Wellesley 
women  have  ever  since  taken  a  prominent  part  in 
the  direction  of  the  association's  policy  and  in  the 
active  life  of  the  settlement  houses  in  New  York, 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore.  Wellesley 
has  given  presidents,  secretaries,  and  many  electors 
to  the  association  itself,  and  head-workers  and  a 
continuous  stream  of  efficient  and  devoted  residents, 
not  only  to  the  four  College  Settlements,  but  to 
Social  Settlement  houses  all  over  the  country. 
The  College  Chapter  keeps  a  special  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  Boston  Settlement,  Denison  House ; 
students  give  entertainments  occasionally  for  the 
settlement  neighbors,  and  help  in  many  ways  at 
Christmas  time ;  but  practical  social  service  from 
undergraduates  is  not  the  ideal  nor  the  desire  of  the 
College  Settlements  Association.  It  aims  rather  at 
the  quickening  of  sympathy  and  intelligence  on 
social  questions,  and  the  moral  and  financial 
support    which    the    College    Chapter    can    give    its 

19-2 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

representatives  out  in  the  world.  Such  by-products 
of  the  settlement  interest  as  the  Social  Study 
Circle,  an  informal  group  of  undergraduates  and 
teachers  which  met  for  several  years  to  study 
social  questions,  are  worth  much  more  to  the  move- 
ment than  the  immature  efforts  of  undergraduates 
in  directing  settlement  clubs  and  classes. 

Already  the  historic  perspective  is  sufficiently 
clear  for  us  to  realize  that  the  College  Settlement 
Movement  is  the  unique,  and  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant organized  contribution  of  the  women's 
colleges  to  civilization  during  their  first  half  cen- 
tury of  existence.  Through  this  movement,  in 
which  the}'  have  played  so  large  a  part,  they  have 
exerted  an  influence  upon  social  thought  and  con- 
science exceeded,  in  this  period,  by  few  other 
agencies,  religious,  philanthropic  or  industrial,  if  we 
except  the  Trade-union  Movement  and  Socialism, 
which  emanate  from  the  workers  themselves.  The 
prominent  part  which  Wellesley  has  played  in  it 
will  doubtless  be  increasingly  understood  and  valued 
by  her  graduates. 

IV 

I.et  it  be  frankly  acknowledged  :  the  ordinary 
adult  is  usually  bored  by  the  undergraduate  periodi- 
cal—  even  though  he  may,  once  upon  a  time,  have 

193 


THE   STORY   OF   ^YELLESLEY 

edited  it  himself.  The  shades  of  the  prison-house 
make  a  poor  light  for  the  Gothic  print  of  adolescence. 
But  the  historian,  if  we  may  trust  allegory,  bears  a 
torch.  For  him  no  chronicle,  whether  compiled 
by  twelfth-century  monk  or  twentieth-century  col- 
legian, can  be  too  remote,  too  dull,  to  reflect  the 
gleam.  And  some  chronicles,  like  the  Wellesley 
one,  are  more  rewarding  than  others. 

No  one  can  turn  over  the  pages  of  these  fledgling 
journals,  Courant,  Prelude,  Magazine,  News,  with- 
out being  impressed  by  the  unconscious  clarity  with 
which  they  reflect  not  merely  the  events  in  the 
college  community  —  although  they  are  unusually 
faithful  and  accurate  recorders  of  events  —  but  the 
college  temper  of  mind,  the  range  of  ideas,  the  re- 
action to  interests  beyond  the  campus,  the  general 
trend  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life. 

The  interest  in  social  questions  is  to  the  fore 
astonishingly  early.  In  Wellesley's  first  newspaper, 
the  Courant,  published  in  the  college  year  1 888-1 889, 
we  find  articles  on  the  Working  Girls  of  Boston,  on 
the  Single  Tax,  and  notes  of  a  prize  essay  on  Child 
Labor.  And  throughout  the  decade  of  the  'cjo's, 
the  dominant  note  in  the  Prelude,  1 889-1 892,  and 
its  successor,  the  Wellesley  Magazine,  1892-1911,  is 
the  social  note.  Reports  of  college  events  give 
prominent   place    to    lectures    on    Woman    Suffrage, 

194 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

Social  Settlements,  Christian  Socialism.  In  1893, 
William  Clarke  of  the  London  Chronicle,  a  member  of 
the  Fabian  Society,  visiting  America  as  a  delegate 
to  the  Labor  Congress  in  Chicago,  gave  lectures 
at  Wellesley  on  "The  Development  of  Socialism 
in  England1',  ''The  Government  of  London", 
"The  London  Working  Classes."  Matthew  Ar- 
nold's visit  came  too  early  to  be  recorded  in  the 
college  paper,  but  he  was  perhaps  the  first  of  a 
notable  list  of  distinguished  Englishmen  who  have 
helped  to  quicken  the  interest  of  Wellesley  students 
along  social  lines.  Graham  Wallas,  Lowes-Dickin- 
son, H.  Ci.  Wells,  are  a  few  of  the  names  found  in 
the  pages  of  the  Magazine  and  the  News.  The  young 
editors  evidently  welcomed  papers  on  social  themes, 
such  as  "The  Transition  in  the  Industrial  Status  of 
Women,  by  Professor  Coman";  and  the  great 
strikes  of  the  decade.  The  Homestead  Strike,  the 
Pennsylvania  Coal  Strike,  the  New  Bedford  Strike, 
are  written  up  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  paper  on  the  Homestead  Strike, 
with  a  plea  for  the  unions,  was  written  by  an  under- 
graduate, Mary  K.  Conyngton,  who  has  since  won 
for  herself  a  reputation  for  research  work  in  the 
Labor   Bureau   at   Washington. 

Political    articles    are    only    less    prominent    than 
social    and    industrial    material.      As    early    as    1893 

195 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

we  have  an  article  on  "The  Triple  Alliance",  and 
in  the  Magazine  of  1898  and  1899  there  are  papers 
on  "The  Colonial  Expansion  of  the  Great  European 
Powers",  "The  Italian  Riots  of  May,  1898",  "The 
Philippine  Question",  "The  Dreyfus  Incident." 
This  preoccupation  of  young  college  women  of  the 
nineteenth  century  with  modern  industrial  and 
political  history  is  significant  when  we  consider  the 
part  that  woman  has  elected  to  play  in  politics  and 
reform  since  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century. 
In  the  first  years  of  that  new  century,  the 
Magazine  and  the  weekly  News  begin  to  reflect 
the  general  revival  of  religious  interest  among 
young  people.  The  Student  Volunteer  Movement, 
the  increased  activities  in  the  Christian  Associations 
for  both  men  and  women,  find  their  response 
in  Wellesley  students.  Letters  from  missionaries 
are  given  prominence;  the  conferences  at  Silver 
Bay  are  written  up  enthusiastically  and  at  great 
length.  Social  questions  never  lapse,  at  Wellesley, 
but  during  the  decade  1900  to  1910,  the  dominant 
journalistic  note  is  increasingly  religious.  Later, 
with  the  activity  of  the  Social  Study  Circle,  an 
informal  club  for  the  study  of  social  questions,  and 
its  offspring  the  small  but  earnest  club  for  the 
stud}"  of  Socialism,  the  social  interests  regained 
their  vitality  for  the  student  mind. 

196 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK  AND   PLAY 

Besides  the  extra  mural  problems,  the  periodicals 
record,  of  course,  the  events  and  the  interests  of  the 
little  college  world.  Through  the  "Free  Press" 
columns  of  these  papers,  the  didactic,  critical,  and 
combative  impulses,  always  so  strong  in  the  under- 
graduate temperament,  find  a  safe  vent.  Mentor 
and  agitator  alike  are  welcomed  in  the  "Free  Press", 
and  many  college  reforms  have  been  inaugurated, 
and  many  college  grievances  —  real  and  imagined  — 
have  been  aired  in  these  outspoken  columns.  And 
not  the  least  readable  portions  of  the  weeklies  have 
been  the  "Waban  Ripples"  in  the  Prelude,  and  the 
"Parliament  of  Fools"  in  the  News.  For  Welles- 
Icy  has  a  merry  wit  and  is  especially  good  at  laugh- 
ing at  herself, — yes,  even  at  that  "Academic"  of 
which  she  is  so  loyally  proud.  Witness  these 
naught}'  parodies  of  examination  questions,  which 
appeared  in  a  "  Parliament  of  Fools"  just  before  the 
mid-year  examinations  of  191 5. 

.Philosophy  : 

"Translate  the  following  into  Kant,  Spencer,  Perry, 
Leibnitz,  Hume,  Calkins  (not  more  than  one  page  each 
allowed). 

"  '  Little  drops  of  water,  little  grains  of  sand. 
Make  the  mighty  ocean,  and  a  pleasant  land." 

''The  remainder  of  the  time  may  be  employed  in  trans- 
lating into  Kantian  terminology,  the  title  of  the  book: 
'Myself  and  I.'" 

197 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

English  Literature : 

"Give  dates  and  significance  of  the  following;  and 
state  whether  they  are  persons  or  books  :  Stratford-on- 
Avon,  Magna  Charta,  Louvain,  Onamataposa,  Synod  of 
Whitby,  Bunker  Hill,  Transcendentalism,  Mesopotamia, 
Albania,  Hastings. 

"Write  an  imaginary  conversation  between  John  Bun- 
yan  and  Myrtle  Reed  on  the  Social  significance  of  Beowulf. 

"Do  you  consider  that  Browning  and  Carlyle  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  Cubist  School  ?  Cite  passages  not  dis- 
cussed in  class  to  support  your  view. 

"Trace  the  effects  of  the  Norman  strain  in  England  in 
the  works  of  Tolstoi,  Cervantes,  and  Tagore." 

English  Composition: 

"Write  a  novelette  containing: 
(a)   Plot ;     (b)  two  crises ;     (c)   three  climaxes ;     (d)  one 
character. 

"Write  a  biography  of  your  own  life,  bringing  out  dis- 
tinctly reasons  pro  and  con.     Outline  form." 

Biblical  History: 

"Trace  the  life  of  Abraham  from  Genesis  through 
Malachi. 

"Quote  the  authentic  passages  of  the  New  Testament. 
Why  or  why  not  ? 

"  Where  do  the  following  words  recur  ?  Verily,  greeting, 
begat,  therefore,  Pharisee,  holy,  notacceptedbythescholars." 

Excellent  fooling,  this  ;  and  it  should  go  far  to 
convince  a  skeptical  public  that  college  girls  take 
their  educational  advantages  with  sanity. 

As  literary  magazines,  these  Wellesley  periodicals 
arc  only  sporadically  successful.     Now  and  again  a 

198 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK  AND   PLAY 

true  poet  flashes  through  their  pages  ;  less  often  a 
true  story-teller,  although  the  mechanical  excellence 
of  most  of  the  stories  is  unquestionable,  —  they 
go  through  the  motions  quite  as  if  they  were  the  real 
thing.  But  the  appeals  of  the  editors  for  poetry 
and  literary  prose  ;  their  occasional  sardonic  com- 
ments upon  the  apathy  of  the  college  reading  public, 
■ —  especially  during  the  waning  later  years  of  the 
Magazine,  before  it  was  absorbed  into  the  monthly 
issue  of  the  News,  —  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  pure,  literary  imagination  is  as  rare  at  Welles- 
ley  as  it  is  in  the  world  at  large.  Yet  there  are 
shining  pages  in  these  chronicles,  pages  whose  golden 
promise  has  been  fulfilled. 

In  191 1,  the  Alumnae  Association  discussed  the 
advisability  of  publishing  an  alumnae  magazine,  but 
it  was  decided  that  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
the  new  enterprise,  and  instead  an  agreement  was 
entered  into  with  the  Nezvs,  by  which  a  certain 
number  of  pages  each  month  were  to  be  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  alumnae  editor,  for  articles  and  essays 
on  college  matters  which  should  be  of  interest 
to  the  alumnae.  The  new  department  has  been 
marked  from  the  beginning  by  dignity  and  interest, 
and  the  papers  contributed  have  been  unusually 
valuable,  especially  from  the  point  of  view  of  college 
history. 

1!)!) 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

In  1889  Wellesley's  Senior  Annual,  the  Legenda, 
came  into  being.  In  general  it  has  followed  the 
conventional  lines  of  all  college  annuals,  but  occa- 
sionally it  has  departed  from  the  beaten  path,  as 
in  1892,  when  it  was  transformed  into  a  Wellesley 
Songbook ;  in  1894,  when  it  printed  a  memorial 
sketch  of  Miss  Shafer,  and  a  biographical  sketch  of 
Mrs.  Durant;  in  1896,  when  it  became  a  storybook 
of  college  life. 

In  October,  191 2,  The  Wellesley  College  Press 
Board  was  organized  by  Mrs.  Helene  Buhlert 
Magee,  of  the  class  of  1903.  The  board  is  the  out- 
growth of  an  attempt  by  the  college  authorities,  in 
191 1,  to  regulate  the  work  of  its  budding  journalists. 
Up  to  this  time  the  newspapers  had  been  supplied, 
more  or  less  intermittently  and  often  unsatis- 
factorily, with  items  of  college  news  by  students 
engaged  by  the  newspapers  and  responsible  only  to 
them.  The  college  now  appoints  an  official  reporter 
from  its  own  faculty,  who  sends  all  Wellesley  news 
to  the  newspapers  and  is  consulted  by  the  regular 
reporters  when  they  desire  special  information.  The 
Press  Board,  organized  by  this  official  reporter,  con- 
sists of  seven  students  reporting  for  Boston  papers  and 
two  for  those  in  Xew  York.  At  the  time  of  the 
Wellesley  fire,  this  board  proved  itself  particularly 
efficient  in  disseminating  accurate  information. 

200 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK  AND  PLAY 

V 

But  it  is  not  the  workaday  Wellcsley,  tranquilly 
pursuing  her  serious  and  semi-serious  occupations, 
that  the  outsiders  know  best.  To  them,  she  is 
wont  to  turn  her  holiday  face.  And  no  college 
plays  with  more  zest  than  Wellesley.  Perhaps  be- 
cause no  college  ever  had  such  a  perfect  playground. 
Every  hill  and  grove  and  hollow  of  the  beautiful 
campus  holds  its  memories  of  playdays  and  mid- 
summer nights. 

Those  were  the  nights  when  Rosalind  and  Orlando 
wandered  out  of  Ardcn  into  a  New  England  moon- 
light ;  when  flitting  Ariel  forsook  Prospero's  isle  to 
make  his  nest  in  Wellesley 's  flowering  rhododendrons 
—  in  blossom  time  he  is  always  hovering  there,  a 
winged  bloom,  for  eyes  that  are  not  holden.  Those 
were  the  nights  when  Puck  came  dancing  up  from 
Tupelo  with  Titania's  fair}'  rout  a-twinkle  at  his 
heels ;  when  the  great  Hindu  Raj  floated  from 
India  in  his  canopied  barge  across  the  moonlit 
waters  of  Lake  Waban ;  when  Tristram  and  Iseult, 
on  their  way  to  the  court  of  King  Mark,  all  love 
distraught,  cast  anchor  in  the  little  cove  below 
Stone  Hall  and  played  their  passion  out;  when 
Xicolette  kilted  her  skirts  against  the  dew  and 
argued    of    love    with    Aucassin.     Those    were    the 

201 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

nights  when  the  Countess  Cathleen  —  loveliest  of 
Yeats's  Irish  ladies  —  found  Paradise  and  the 
Heavenly  Host  awaiting  her  on  a  Wellesley  hilltop 
when  she  had  sold  her  soul  to  feed  her  starving 
peasants. 

But  the  glamour  of  the  sun  is  as  potent  as  the 
glamour  of  the  moon  at  Wellesley.  High  noon  is 
magical  on  Tree  Day,  for  then  the  mythic  folk  of 
ancient  Greece,  the  hamadryads  and  Dian's  nymphs, 
Venus  and  Orpheus  and  Narcissus,  and  all  the  rest, 
come  out  and  dream  a  dance  of  old  days  on  the  great 
green  billows  of  the  lawn.  To  see  veiled  Cupid, 
like  a  living  flame,  come  streaming  down  among  the 
hillside  trees,  down,  swift  as  fire,  to  the  waiting 
Psyche,  is  never  to  forget.  No  wood  near  Athens 
was  ever  so  vision-haunted  as  Wellesley  with  the 
dancing  spirits  of  past  Tree  Days. 

On  that  day  in  early  June  the  whole  college  turns 
itself  into  a  pageant  of  spring.  From  the  long  hill- 
side above  which  College  Hall  once  towered,  the 
faculty  and  the  alumnae  watch  their  younger  sisters 
march  in  slow  processional  triumph  around  and 
about  the  wide  green  campus.  Like  a  moving  flower 
garden  the  procession  winds  upon  itself;  hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  seniors  and  juniors  and  sophomores 
and  freshmen,  —  more  than  fourteen  hundred  of  them 
in    1 91 4.     Then  it  breaks  ranks  and  plants  itself  in 

2  02 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK  AND   PLAY 

parterres  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  masses  of  blue, 
and  rose,  and  lavender,  and  golden  blossoming 
girls.  Contrary  Mistress  Mary's  garden  was  noth- 
ing to  it.  And  after  the  procession  come  the  dances. 
Sometimes  a  Breton  Pardon  wanders  across  the  sea. 
The  gods  from  Olympus  are  very  much  at  home  in 
these  groves  of  academe.  Once  King  Arthur's 
knight  came  riding  up  the  wide  avenue  at  the  edge  of 
the  green.  The  spirits  of  sun  and  moon,  the  nymphs 
of  the  wind  and  the  rain,  have  woven  their  mystical 
spells  on  that  great  greensward.  And  in  the  fairy  ring 
around  Longfellow  fountain,  gnomes  and  fays  and 
freshmen  play  hide-and-seek  with  the  water  nixies. 
The  first  Tree  Day  was  Mr.  Durant's  idea;  no 
one  was  more  awake  than  he,  in  the  old  days,  to 
Wellesley's  poetic  possibilities.  And  the  first  trees 
were  gifts  from  Mr.  Hunnewell ;  two  beautiful 
exotics,  Japanese  golden  evergreens  —  one  for  1879 
and  one  for  1880.  The  two  trees  were  planted  on 
May  16.  1877,  the  sophomore  tree  by  the  library, 
the  freshman  tree  by  the  dining  room.  An  early 
chronicler  writes,  "Then  it  was  that  the  venerated 
spade  made  its  first  appearance.  We  had  con- 
fidently expected  a  trowel,  had  written  indeed 
'Apostrophe  to  the  Trowel'  on  our  programs,  and 
our  apostrophist  (do  not  see  the  dictionary),  a  girl 
of  about  the  same  height  as  the  spade,  but  by  no 

203 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

means,  as  she  modestly  suggested,  of  the  same  mental 
capacity,  was  so  stricken  with  astonishment  when 
she  had  mounted  the  rostrum  and  this  burly  instru- 
ment was  propped  up  before  her,  that  she  nearly 
forgot  her  speech.  .  .  .  And  then  it  was  there  was 
introduced  the  more  questionable  practice  of  plant- 
ing class  trees  too  delicate  to  bear  the  college  course. 
Although  a  foolish  little  bird  built  her  nest  and  laid 
her  eggs  in  the  golden-leaved  evergreen  of  '79,  and 
although  a  much  handsomer  nest  with  a  very  much 
larger  egg  appeared  immediately  in  the  Retinospora 
Precipera  Aurea  of  '80,  yet  the  rival  'nymphs  with 
golden  hair'  were  both  soon  forced  to  forsake  their 
withered  tenements ;  Mr.  Hunnewell's  exotics,  after 
another  trial  or  two,  being  succeeded  by  plebeian 
hemlocks." 

The  true  story  of  the  Wellesley  spade  and  how  it 
came  to  be  handed  down  from  class  to  class,  is  re- 
corded in  Florence  Morse  Kingsley's  diary,  where 
we  learn  how  the  "burly  instrument"  of  1877  was 
succeeded  by  a  less  unwieldy  and  more  ladylike 
utensil.     Under  the  date,  April  3,   1878,  we  find  : 

Our  class  (the  class  of  '81)  had  a  meeting  last  night. 
We  held  it  in  one  of  the  laboratories  on  the  fifth  floor, 
quite  in  secret,  for  we  didn't  want  the  '80  girls  to  find  it 
out.  The  class  of  '80  is  thought  to  be  extraordinarily 
brilliant,   and   they  certainly  do  look    down   on    us   fresh- 

204 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

men  in  haughty  disdain  as  being  correspondingly  stupid. 
I  don't  say  very  much  against  them,  since  I  —  is  an  '80 
girl :  besides,  if  I  work  hard  I  can  graduate  with  '80,  but 
at  present  my  lot  is  cast  with  '81.  We  have  decided  to 
have  a  tree  planting,  and  it  is  to  be  entirely  original  and 
the  first  of  a  series.  Mr.  Durant  has  given  a  Japanese 
Golden  Evergreen  to  '79  and  one  to  '80.  They  are  pre- 
cisely alike  and  they  had  been  planted  for  quite  a  while 
before  he  thought  of  turning  them  into  class  trees.  We 
heard  a  dark  rumor  yesterday  to  the  effect  that  Mr. 
Durant  is  intending  to  plant  another  evergreen  under  the 
library  window  and  present  it  to  us.  But  we  voted  to 
forestall  his  generosity.  We  mean  to  have  an  elm,  and 
we  want  to  plant  it  out  in  front  of  the  college,  in  the 
center  or  just  on  the  other  side  of  the  driveway.  The 
burning  question  remained  as  to  who  should  acquaint  Mr. 
Durant  with  our  valuable  ideas.  Xobody  seemed  raven- 
ously eager  for  the  job,  and  finally  I  was  nominated.  "  You 
know  him  better  than  we  do,"  they  all  said,  so  I  finally 
consented.  I  haven't  a  ghost  of  an  idea  what  to  say; 
for  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it,  it  is  rather  ungrateful 
of  'Si  not  to  want  the  evergreen  under  the  library  window. 
April  10.  Alice  and  I  went  to  Mr.  Durant  to-day 
about  the  tree  planting;  but  Alice  was  stricken  with  tem- 
porary dumbness  and  never  opened  her  lips,  though  she 
had  solemnly  promised  to  do  at  least  half  the  talking;  so 
I  had  to  wade  right  into  the  subject  alone.  I  began  in 
medias  res,  for  I  couldn't  think  of  a  really  graceful  and 
diplomatic  introduction  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  Mr. 
Durant  was  in  the  office  with  a  pile  of  papers  before  him 
as  usual  ;  he  appeared  to  be  very  preoccupied  and  he  was 
looking  rather  severe.  The  interview  proceeded  about  as 
follows  : 

205 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

He  glanced  up  at  us  sharply  and  said,  "Well,  young 
ladies,"  which  meant,  "Kindly  get  down  to  business;  my 
time  is  valuable."  I  got  down  to  it  about  as  gracefully 
as  a  cat  coming  down  a  tree,  like  this :  "We  have  decided 
to  have  a  regular  tree-planting,  Mr.  Durant."  Of  course 
I  should  have  said,  "The  class  of  '81  would  like  to  have  a 
tree-planting,  if  you  please." 

Mr.  Durant  appeared  somewhat  startled  :  "Eh,  what's 
that?"  he  said,  then  he  settled  back  in  his  chair  and 
looked  hard  at  us.  His  eyes  were  as  keen  as  frost;  but 
they  twinkled  —  just  a  little,  as  I  have  discovered  they 
can  and  do  twinkle  if  one  isn't  afraid  to  say  right  out 
what  one  means,  without  unnecessary  fuss  and  twaddle. 

"Alice  and  I  are  delegates  from  the  Class  of  '81,"  I 
explained,  a  trifle  more  lucidly.  "The  class  has  voted 
to  plant  an  elm  for  our  class  tree,  and  we  would  like  to 
plant  it  in  front  of  the  college  in  a  prominent  spot." 
We  had  previously  decided  gracefully  to  ignore  the  ever- 
green rumor. 

Mr.  Durant  looked  thoughtful.  "Hum,"  he  said,  "I'd 
planned  to  give  you  girls  of  '81  a  choice  evergreen,  and 
as  for  a  place  for  it:  what  do  you  say  to  the  plot  on  the 
north  side,  just  under  the  library  window?" 

I  looked  beseechingly  at  Alice.  She  was  apparently 
very  much  occupied  in  a  meek  survey  of  the  toes  of  her 
boots,  which  she  had  stubbed  into  premature  old  age 
scrambling  up  and  down  from  the  boat  landings. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Durant  was  waiting  for  our  look  of 
pleased  surprise  and  joyful  acquiescence.  Then,  without 
a  vestige  of  diplomacy,  I  blurted  right  out,  "Yes,  Mr. 
Durant;  we  heard  so;  but  we  don't  think,  that  is,  we 
don't  want  an  evergreen  under  the  library  window;  we 
would  like  a  tree  that  will  live  a  long,  long  time  and  grow 

206 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   ANT)   PLAY 

big  like  an  elm,  and  we  want  it  where  everybody  will  see 
it." 

Mr.  Durant  looked  exceedingly  surprised,  and  for  the 
space  of  five  seconds  I  was  breathless.  Then  he  smiled 
in  the  really  fascinating  way  that  he  has.  "Well,"  he 
said,  and  looked  at  me  again,  "what  else  have  you  decided 
to  do  ?" 

Then  I  told  him  all  about  the  program  we  had  planned, 
which  is  to  include  an  address  to  the  spade  (which  we 
hope  will  be  preserved  forever  and  ever),  a  class  song,  a 
procession,  and  a  few  other  inchoate  ideas.  Mr.  Durant 
entered  right  into  the  spirit  of  it,  he  said  he  liked  the  idea 
of  a  spade  to  be  handed  down  from  class  to  class.  He 
asked  us  if  we  had  the  spade  yet,  and  I  told  him  "no," 
but  Alice  and  I  were  going  to  buy  it  for  the  class  in  the 
village  that  afternoon. 

"Well,  mind  you  get  a  good  one,"  he  advised.  We 
said  we  would,  very  joyfully.  Then  he  told  us  we  might 
select  any  young  elm  we  wanted,  and  tie  our  class  colors 
on  it,  and  he  would  order  it  to  be  transplanted  for  us. 
After  that  he  put  on  his  hat  and  all  three  of  us  went  out 
and  fixed  the  spot  right  in  front  of  the  college  by  the 
driveway.  Mr.  Durant  himself  stuck  a  little  stick  in 
the  exact  place  where  the  elm  of  '8 1  will  wave  its  branches 
for  at  least  a  hundred  years,  I  hope. 

The  hundred  years  are  still  to  run,  and  old  Col- 
lege Hall  has  vanished,  but  the  'Si  elm  stands  in  its 
"prominent"  place,  a  tree  of  ancient  memories  and 
visions  ever  young. 

It  was  not  until  1SS9  that  the  pageant  element 
began   to  take  a   definite  and   conspicuous  place  in 

£07 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  Tree  Day  exercises.  The  class  of  '89  in  its 
senior  year  gave  a  masque  in  which  tall  dryads, 
robed  in  green,  played  their  dainty  roles  ;  and  that 
same  year  the  freshmen,  the  class  of  1892,  gave  the 
first  Tree  Day  dance  :  a  very  mild  dance  of  pink 
and  white  English  maidens  around  a  maypole  — 
but  the  germ  of  all  the  Tree  Day  dances  yet  unborn. 
In  its  senior  year,  1892  celebrated  the  discovery  of 
America  by  a  sort  of  kermess  of  Colonial  and  Indian 
dances  with  tableaux,  and  ever  since,  from  year  to 
year,  the  wonder  has  grown ;  Zeus,  and  Venus,  and 
King  Arthur  have  all  held  court  and  revel  on  the 
Wellesley  Campus.  Every  year  the  long  procession 
across  the  green  grows  longer,  more  beautiful,  more 
elaborate ;  the  dancing  is  more  exquisitely  planned, 
more  complex,  more  carefully  rehearsed.  In  the 
spring,  Wellesley  girls  are  twirling  a-tiptoe  in  every 
moment  not  spent  in  class ;  and  in  class  their 
thoughts  sometimes  dance.  Indeed,  the  students 
of  late  years  have  begun  to  ask  themselves  if  it  may 
not  be  possible  to  obtain  quite  as  beautiful  a  result 
with  less  expense  of  effort  and  time  and  money ; 
for  Tree  Day,  the  crowning  delight  of  the  year, 
would  defeat  its  own  end,  which  is  pure  recreation, 
if  its  beaut}"  became  a  tyrant. 

This  multiplication  of  joys  —  and  their  attendant 
worries  —  is   something  that  Wellesley  has  to  take 

208 


Sliakc>]>r;ir 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

measures  to  guard  against,  and  the  faculty  has 
worked  out  a  scheme  of  biennial  rotatory  festivities 
which  since  1911-1912  has  eased  the  pressure  of 
revelry  in  May  and  June,  as  well  as  throughout  the 
winter  months. 

VVellesley's  list  of  societies  and  social  clubs  is  not 
short,  but  the  conditions  of  membership  are  care- 
fully guarded.  As  early  as  the  second  year  of  the 
college,  five  societies  came  into  existence:  of  these, 
the  Beethoven  Society  and  the  Microscopical  — 
which  started  with  a  membership  of  six  and  an 
exhibition  under  three  microscopes  at  its  first  meet- 
ing —  seem  to  have  been  open  to  any  who  cared  to 
join  ;  the  other  three  — -  the  Zeta  Alpha  and  Phi 
Sigma  societies  founded  in  November,  1876,  and 
the  Shakespeare  in  January,  1877  —  were  mutually 
exclusive.  The  two  Greek  letter  societies  were 
literary  in  aim,  and  their  early  programs  consisted 
in  literal-}'  papers  and  oral  debates.  The  Shake- 
speare Society,  for  man}*  years  a  branch  of  the 
London  Shakespeare  Society,  devoted  itself  to  the 
stud}'  and  dramatic  presentation  of  Shakespeare. 
Its  first  open-air  phi}'  was  '"As  You  Like  It", 
given  in  [889;  and  until  191 2.  when  it  conformed 
to  the  new  plan  of  biennial  rotation,  this  society 
gave  a  Shakespearean  play  every  year  at  Com- 
mencement. 

20!) 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

In  1 88 1,  Zeta  Alpha  and  Phi  Sigma  were  dis- 
continued by  the  faculty,  because  of  pressure  of 
academic  work,  but  in  1889  they  were  reorganized, 
and  gradually  their  programs  were  extended  to  in- 
clude dramatic  work,  poetic  plays,  and  masques. 
The  Phi  Sigma  Society  gives  its  masque  —  some- 
times an  original  one  —  on  alternate  years  just 
before  the  Christmas  vacation  ;  and  Zeta  Alpha  alter- 
nates with  the  Classical  Society  at  Commencement. 
The  Zeta  Alpha  Masque  of  191 3,  a  charming 
dramatization  in  verse  of  an  old  Hindu  legend  by 
Elizabeth  McClellan  of  the  class  of  191 3,  was  one  of 
the  notable  events  of  Commencement  time,  a  pageant 
of  poetic  beauty  and  oriental  dignity;  and  in  191 5 
Florence  Wilkinson  Evans's  adaptation  of  the  lovely 
old  poem  "Aucassin  and  Xicolette",  was  given  for 
the  second  time. 

In  1889,  the  Art  Society  —  known  since  1894  as 
Tau  Zeta  Epsilon  —  was  founded  ;  and,  alternat- 
ing with  the  Shakespeare  play,  it  gives  in  the  spring 
a  "Studio  Reception",  at  which  pictures  from  the 
old  masters,  with  living  models,  are  presented. 
The  effects  of  lighting  and  color  are  so  carefully 
studied,  and  the  compositions  of  the  originals  are 
so  closely  followed  that  the  illusion  is  sometimes 
startling ;  it  is  as  if  real  Titians,  Rembrandts,  and 
Carpaccios    hung    on    the    walls    of    the    Wellesley 

210 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

Barn.  In  1889,  also,  the  Glee  and  Banjo  clubs 
were   formed. 

In  1 89 1,  the  Agora,  the  political  society,  came 
into  existence.  The  serious  intellectual  quality  of 
its  work  does  honor  to  the  college,  and  its  open 
debates,  at  which  it  has  sometimes  represented  the 
House  of  Commons,  sometimes  one  or  the  other  of 
the  American  Chambers  of  Congress,  are  marked 
events  in  the  college  calendar. 

In  1892,  Alpha  Kappa  Chi,  the  Classical  Society, 
was  organized,  and  of  late  years  its  Greek  play, 
presented  during  Commencement  week,  has  sur- 
passed both  the  senior  play  and  the  Shakespeare 
play  in  dramatic  rendering  and  careful  study  of  the 
lines.  Gilbert  Murray's  translation  of  the  '"Medea", 
presented  in  19 14,  was  a  performance  of  which 
Welleslcy  was  justly  proud.  Usually  the  Wellesley 
plays  arc  better  as  pageants  than  as  dramatic  produc- 
tions, but  the  Classical  Society  is  setting  a  standard 
for  the  careful  literary  interpretation  and  ren- 
dering <>f  dramatic  texts,  which  should  prove  stimu- 
lating to  all  the  societies  and  class  organizations. 

The  senior  play  is  one  of  the  chief  events  of 
Commencement  week,  but  the  students  have  not 
always  been  fully  awake  to  their  dramatic  oppor- 
tunity. It  college  theatricals  have  any  excuse  for 
being,  it   is  not  found  in  attempts  to  compete  with 

211 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  commercial  stage  and  imitate  the  professional 
actor,  but  rather  in  dramatic  revivals  such  as  the 
Harvard  Delta  Upsilon  has  so  spiritedly  presented, 
or  in  the  interpretation  of  the  poetic  drama,  whether 
early  or  late,  which  modern  theaters  with  their 
mixed  audiences  cannot  afford  to  present.  The 
college  audience  is  always  a  selected  audience,  and 
has  a  right  to  expect  from  the  college  players  dra- 
matic caviare.  That  Wellesley  is  moving  in  the 
right  direction  may  be  seen  by  reading  a  list  of  her 
senior  plays,  among  which  are  the  "Countess  Cath- 
leen",  by  Yeats,  Alfred  Noyes's  "Sherwood",  and 
in  191 5  "The  Piper"  by  Josephine  Peabody  Marks. 

But  Wellesley's  recreation  is  not  all  rehearsed 
and  formal.  May  Day,  when  the  seniors  roll  their 
hoops  in  the  morning,  and  all  the  college  comes  out 
to  dance  on  the  green  and  eat  ice-cream  cones  in  the 
afternoon,  is  full  of  spontaneous  jollity.  Before  the 
burning  of  College  Hall,  the  custom  had  arisen  of 
cleaning  house  on  May  Day,  and  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  saw  the  seniors  out  with  pails  and  mops, 
scrubbing  and  decorating  the  many  statues  which 
kept  watch  in  the  beloved  old  corridors. 

One  of  these  statutes  had  become  in  some  sort 
the  genius  of  College  Hall.  Of  heroic  size,  a  noble 
representation  of  womanly  force  and  tranquillity, 
Anne   Whitney's   statue  of   Harriet   Martineau    had 

Q\0 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

watched  the  stream  of  American  girlhood  flow 
through  "the  Center"  and  surge  around  the  palms 
for  twenty-eight  years.  The  statue  was  originally 
made  at  the  request  of  Mrs.  Maria  Weston  Chap- 
man, the  well-known  abolitionist  and  dear  friend 
of  Miss  Martineau  ;  but  after  Mrs.  Chapman's 
death,  it  was  Miss  Whitney's  to  dispose  of,  and, 
representing  as  it  did  her  ideal  modern  woman, 
she  gave  it  in  1 886  to  Wellesley,  where  modern 
womanhood  was  in  the  making.  In  later  years, 
irreverent  youth  took  playful  liberties  with  "Har- 
riet'', using  her  much  as  a  beloved  spinster  aunt  is 
used  by  fond  but  familiar  young  nieces.  No  fresh- 
man was  considered  properly  matriculated  until  she 
had  been  dragged  between  the  rungs  of  Miss  Mar- 
tineau's  great  marble  chair;  May  Day  always  saw 
''Aunt  Harriet"  rise  like  Diana  fresh  from  her  bath, 
to  be  decked  with  more  or  less  becoming  furbelows; 
and  as  the  presiding  genius  in  the  lighter  columns  of 
Collrgt'  .\i:cs,  her  humor  —  an  acquired  characteris- 
tic was  merrily  appreciated.  ()t  all  the  lost 
treasures  of  College  Hall  she  is  perhaps  the  most 
widely    mourned. 

The  pretty  little  Society  houses,  dotted  about  the 
campus,  also  give  the  students  opportunity  to 
entertain  their  guests,  both  formally  and  informally, 
and    during    the    months    following    the    fire,    when 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Wellesley  was  cramped  for  space,  they  exercised  a 
generous  hospitality  which  put  all  the  college  in 
their  debt. 

As  the  membership  in  the  Shakespeare  and 
Greek  letter  societies  is  limited  to  between  forty 
and  fifty  members  in  each  society,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  students  are  without  these  social  privi- 
leges, but  the  Barn  Swallows,  founded  in  1897,  to 
which  every  member  of  the  college  may  belong  if 
she  wishes,  gives  periodic  entertainments  in  the 
"Barn"  which  go  far  to  promote  general  good  feel- 
ing and  social  fellowship.  The  first  president  of  the 
Barn  Swallows,  Mary  E.  Haskell,  '97,  says  that  it 
arose  as  an  Everybody's  Club,  to  give  buried  talents 
a  chance.  "Suddenly  we  adjured  the  Trustees  by 
Joy  and  Democracy  to  bless  our  charter,  to  be  gay 
once  a  week,  and  when  they  gave  the  Olympic  nod 
we  begged  for  the  Barn  to  be  gay  in  —  and  they 
gave  that  too. 

"It  was  a  grim  joy  parlor;  rough  old  floor,  bristly 
with  splinters,  few  windows,  no  plank  walk,  no 
•stage,  no  partitions,  no  lighting.  We  hung  tin  re- 
flectored  lanterns  on  a  few  of  the  posts,  —  thicker 
near  the  stage  end,  — -  and  opened  the  season  with 
an  impromptu  opera  of  the  Brontes'."  To  Professor 
Charlotte  F.  Roberts,  Wellesley  '80,  the  Barn  Swal- 
lows owe  their  happy  name. 

214 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK   AND   PLAY 

Besides  these  more  formal  organizations  there  are 
a  number  of  department  clubs,  the  Deutsche  Ycrein, 
the  Alliance  Francaisc,  the  Philosophy  Club,  the 
Economics  Club,  and  informal  groups  such  as  the 
old  Rhymesters'  Club,  which  flourished  in  the  late 
nineties,  the  Scribblers'  which  seems  to  have  taken 
its  place  and  enlarged  its  scope,  the  Social  Study 
Circle,  the  little  Socialist  Club,  and  others  through 
which  the  students  express  their  intellectual  and 
social   interests. 

Of  Welleslcy's  many  festivities  and  playtimes  it 
would  take  too  long  to  tell  :  of  her  Forensic  Burn- 
ings, held  when  the  last  junior  forensic  for  the  year 
is  due  ;  of  her  processional  serenades,  with  Chinese 
lanterns  ;  of  her  singing  on  the  chapel  steps  in  the 
evenings  of  May  and  June.  These  well-beloved 
customs  have  been  establishing  themselves  year  by 
year  more  firmly  in  undergraduate  hearts,  but  it  is 
not  always  possible  to  trace  them  to  their  "first 
time."  Most  of  them  date  back  to  the  later  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  or  the  first  of  the 
twentieth.  Wellesley's  musical  cheer  seems  to  have 
waked  the  campus  echoes  first  in  the  spring  of  1890, 
as  a  result  of  a  prize  offered  in  November,  1889, 
although  as  far  back  as  1880  there  is  mention  of  a 
cheer.  The  musical  cheer  has  so  much  beaut}-  and 
dignity,  both   near  at   hand  and  at  a  distance,   that 

-2 1  .5 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

many  of  the  early  alumnae  and  the  faculty  wish  it 
might  some  time  quite  supersede  the  ugly  barking 
sounds,  imitated  from  the  men's  colleges,  with  which 
the  girls  are  fain  to  evince  their  approval  and  cele- 
brate their  triumphs.  They  invariably  end  their 
barking  with  the  musical  cheer,  however,  keeping 
the  best  for  the  last,  and  relieving  the  tortured 
graduate  ear. 

Formal  athletics  at  Wellesley  developed  from  the 
gymnasium  practice,  the  rowing  on  the  lake,  and  the 
Tree  Day  dancing.  In  the  early  years,  the  class 
crews  used  to  row  on  the  lake  and  sing  at  sunset,  in 
their  heavy,  broad-bottomed  old  tubs ;  and  from 
these  casual  summer  evenings  "Float"  has  been 
evolved  —  Wellesley's  water  pageant  — ■  when  Lake 
Waban  is  dotted  with  gay  craft,  and  the  crews  in 
their  slim,  modern,  eight-oared  shells,  display  their 
skill.  This  is  the  festival  which  the  public  knows 
best,  for  unlike  Tree  Day,  to  which  outsiders  have 
been  admitted  on  only  three  occasions,  "Float"  has 
always  been  open  to  friendly  guests.  Year  by  year 
the  festival  grows  more  elaborate.  Chinese  junks, 
Indian  canoes,  Venetian  gondolas,  flower  boats  from 
fairyland,  glide  over  the  bright  sunset  waters,  and 
the  crews  in  their  old  traditional  star  pattern  anchor 
together  and  sing  their  merry  songs.  There  are  new 
songs  every  spring,  for  each  crew  has  its  own  song, 

216 


/ 


\Val).-i!i    Ho.it    Hoiw 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

but  there  arc  two  of  the  old  songs  which  arc  heard 
at  every  Wellesley  Float,  "Alma  Mater",  and  the 
song  of  the  lake,  that  Louise  Manning  Hodgkins 
wrote  for  the  class  of  '87. 

Lake  of  gray  at  dawning  day, 

In  soft  shadows  lying, — 
Waters  kissed  by  morning  mist, 

Early  breezes  sighing, — 
Fairy  vision  as  thou  art, 
Soon  thy  fleeting  charms  depart. 
Every  grace  that  wins  the  heart, 

Like  our  youth  is  flying. 

Lake  of  blue,  a  merry  crew, 

Cheer  of  thee  will  borrow. 
Happy  hours  to-day  are  ours, 

Weighted  by  no  sorrow. 
Other  years  may  bring  us  tears, 
Other  days  he  full  of  fears. 
Only  hope  the  craft  now  steers. 

Cares  arc  for  the  morrow. 

Lake  of  white  at  holy  night, 
In  the  moonlight  gleaming, — 

Softly  o'er  the  wooded  shore, 
Silver  radiance  streaming, — 

On  thy  wavelets  bear  away 

Every  care  we've  known  to-day, 

Bring  on  thy  returning  way 
Peaceful,  happy  dreaming. 

After  the  singing,  the  Hunnewell  cup  is  presented 
for   the  crew  competition;    and   with   the  darkness, 

2\1 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  fireworks  begin  to  flash  up  from  the  opposite 
shore  of  the  lake. 

Besides  the  rowing  clubs,  in  the  first  decade,  there 
were  tennis  clubs,  and  occasional  outdoor  "meets" 
for  cross-country  runs,  but  apparently  there  was  no 
regular  organization  combining  in  one  association 
all  the  separate  clubs  until  1 896-1 897,  when  we 
hear  of  the  formation  of  a  "New  Athletic  Associa- 
tion." There  is  also  record  of  a  Field  Day  on  May 
29,  1899.  In  1902,  we  find  the  "new  athletics" — ■ 
evidently  a  still  newer  variety  than  those  of  1897  — 
"recognized  by  the  trustees";  and  the  first  Field 
Day  under  this  newest  regime  occurred  on  Novem- 
ber 3,  1902.  All  the  later  Field  Days  have  been 
held  in  the  late  autumn,  at  the  end  of  the  sports 
season,  which  now  includes  a  preliminary  season  in 
the  spring  and  a  final  season  in  the  autumn.  An 
accepted  candidate  for  an  organized  sport  must 
hold  herself  ready  to  practice  during  both  seasons, 
unless  disqualified  by  the  physical  examiner,  and 
must  confine  herself  to  the  one  sport  which  she  has 
chosen.  During  both  seasons  the  members  may  be 
required  to  practice  three  times  a  week. 

The  Athletic  Association,  under  its  present  con- 
stitution, dates  from  March,  1908.  All  members 
of  the  college  are  eligible  for  membership,  all  mem- 
bers of  the  organized  sports  are  ipso  facto  members 

518 


THE   STUDENTS   AT   WORK   AND   PLAY 

of  the  association,  and  the  Director  of  Physical 
Training  is  a  member  ex  officio.  An  annual  contri- 
bution of  one  dollar  is  solicited  from  each  member 
of  the  association,  and  special  funds  are  raised  by 
voluntary  contribution.  In  the  year  1914-1915, 
the  association  included  about  twelve  hundred 
members,  not  all  of  them  dues-paying,  however. 

The  president  of  the  Athletic  Association  is 
always  a  senior;  the  vice  president,  who  is  also 
chairman  of  the  Field  Day  Committee,  and  the 
treasurer  are  juniors;  the  secretary  and  custodian 
are  sophomores.  The  members  of  the  Organized 
Sports  elect  their  respective  heads,  and  each  sport  is 
governed  by  its  own  rules  and  regulations  and  by 
such  intersport  legislation  as  is  enacted  by  the  Execu- 
tive Board,  not  in  contravention  to  regulations  by 
the  Department  of  Physical  Training  and  Hygiene. 
In  this  way  the  association  and  the  department 
work  together  for  college  health. 

The  organized  sports  at  Wellesley  are:  rowing, 
golf,  tennis,  basket  ball,  field  hockey,  running, 
archer}',  and  baseball.  The  unorganized  sports  in- 
clude walking,  riding,  swimming,  fencing,  skating, 
and  snowshoeing.  Each  sport  has  its  instructor, 
or  instructors,  from  the  Department  of  Physical 
Training.  The  members  are  grouped  in  class  squads 
governed  by  captains,  and  each  class  squad  furnishes 

210 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

a  class  team  whose  members  are  awarded  numerals, 
before  a  competitive  class  event,  on  the  basis  of 
records  of  health,  discipline,  and  skill.  Honors, 
blue  W's  worn  on  the  sweaters,  are  awarded  on  a 
similar  basis.  Interclass  competitions  for  trophies 
are  held  on  Field  Day,  and  the  association  hopes, 
with  the  development  of  outdoor  baseball,  to  estab- 
lish interhouse  competitions  also.  The  gala  days 
are,  besides  Field  Day  in  the  autumn,  the  Indoor 
Meet  in  the  spring  at  the  end  of  the  indoor  practice, 
"Float"  in  June,  and  in  winter,  when  the  weather 
permits,  an  Ice  Carnival  on  the  lake. 

Through  the  Athletic  Association,  new  tennis 
courts  have  been  laid  out,  the  golf  course  has  been 
remodeled,  and  the  boathouse  repaired.  In  191 5, 
it  was  making  plans  for  a  sheltered  amphitheater, 
bleachers,  and  a  baseball  diamond  ;  and  despite  the 
fact  that  dues  are  not  obligatory,  more  and  more 
students  are  coming  to  appreciate  the  work  of  the 
Association  and  to  assume  responsibility  toward  it. 

Wellesley  does  not  believe  in  intercollegiate 
sports  for  women.  In  this  opinion,  the  women's  col- 
leges seem  to  be  agreed  ;  it  is  one  of  the  points  at 
which  they  are  content  to  diverge  from  the  policy 
of  the  men's  colleges.  Wellesley's  sports  are  organ- 
ized to  give  recreation  and  healthful  exercise  to  as 
many  students  as  are  fit  and  willing  to  take  part  in 

220 


THE   STUDENTS  AT  WORK   AND   PLAY 

them.  Some  students  even  disapprove  of  inter- 
class  competitions,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  inter- 
house  teams  for  baseball  will  serve  as  an  antidote 
to  rivalry  between  the  classes. 

The  only  intercollegiate  event  in  which  Welles- 
ley  takes  part  is  the  intercollegiate  debate.  In  this 
contest,  Wellesley  has  been  twice  beaten  by  Yassar, 
but  in  March,  1914,  she  won  in  the  debate  against 
Mt.  Holyoke,  and  in  March,  191 5,  in  the  triangular 
debate,  she  defeated  both  Yassar  and  Mt.  Holyoke. 

In  September,  1904,  the  college  was  granted  a 
charter  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  and  the 
Wellesley  Chapter,  — -installed  January  17,  1905,  — 
is  known  as  the  Eta  of  Massachusetts. 


2*21 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    FIRE  :     AN    INTERLUDE 

OX  the  morning  of  March  17,  1914,  College  Hall, 
the  oldest  and  largest  building  on  the  Wellesley 
campus,  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Xo  one  knows  how 
the  fire  originated ;  no  one  knows  who  first  dis- 
covered it.  Several  people,  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  house,  seem  to  have  been  awakened  at  about 
the  same  time  by  the  smoke,  and  all  acted  with 
clear-headed  promptness.  The  night  was  thick 
with  fog,  and  the  little  wind  "that  heralds  the  dawn" 
was  not  strong  enough  to  disperse  the  heavy  vapors, 
else  havoc  indeed  might  have  been  wrought  through- 
out the  campus  and  the  sleeping  village. 

At  about  half  past  four  o'clock,  two  students  at 
the  west  end  of  College  Hall,  on  the  fourth  floor, 
were  awakened  and  saw  a  fiery  glow  reflected  in 
their  transom.  Getting  up  to  investigate,  they 
found  the  fire  burning  in  the  zoological  laboratory 
across  the  corridor,  and  one  of  them  immediately 
set  out  to  warn  Miss  Tufts,  the  registrar,  and  Miss 
Davis,  the  Director  of  the  Halls  of  Residence,  both 


THE    FIRE:    AN   INTERLUDE 

of  whom  lived  in  the  building;  the  other  girl 
hurried  off  to  find  the  indoor  watchman.  At  the 
same  time,  a  third  girl  rang  the  great  Japanese 
bell  in  the  third  floor  center.  In  less  than  ten 
minutes  after  this,  every  student  was  out  of  the 
building. 

The  story  of  that  brief  ten  minutes  is  packed 
with  self-control  and  selflessness ;  trained  muscles 
and  minds  and  souls  responded  to  the  emergency 
with  an  automatic  efficiency  well-nigh  unbelievable. 
Miss  Tufts  sent  the  alarm  to  the  president,  and  then 
went  to  the  rooms  of  the  faculty  on  the  third  floor 
and  to  the  officers  of  the  Domestic  Department  on 
the  second  floor.  Miss  Davis  set  a  girl  to  ringing 
the  fast-fire  alarm.  And  down  the  four  long  wooden 
staircases  the  girls  in  kimonos  and  greatcoats  came 
trooping,  each  one  on  the  staircase  she  had  been 
drilled  to  use,  after  she  had  left  her  room  with  its 
light  burning  and  its  corridor  door  shut.  In  the 
first  floor  center  the  fire  lieutenants  called  the  roll 
of  the  fire  squads,  and  reported  to  Miss  Davis,  who, 
to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  had  the  roll  called 
a  second  time.  No  one  said  the  word  "fire"'  —  this 
would  have  been  against  the  rules  of  the  drill.  For 
a  brief  space  there  was  no  sound  but  "the  ominous 
one  of  falling  heavy  brands."  When  Miss  Davis 
gave    the     order    to    go    out,    the     students     walked 

2y.\ 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

quietly  across  the  center,  with  embers  and  sparks 
falling  about  them,  and  went  out  on  the  north  side 
through  the  two  long  windows  at  the  sides  of  the 
front  door. 

And  all  this  in  ten  minutes  ! 

Meanwhile,  Professor  Calkins,  who  does  not  live 
at  the  college  but  had  happened  to  spend  the  night 
in  the  Psychology  office  on  the  fifth  floor,  had  been 
one  of  the  earliest  to  awake,  had  wakened  other 
members  of  the  faculty  and  helped  Professor  Case 
and  her  wheel-chair  to  the  first  floor,  and  also  had 
sent  a  man  with  an  ax  to  break  in  Professor  Irvine's 
door,  which  was  locked.  As  it  happened,  Professor 
Irvine  was  spending  the  night  in  Cambridge,  and 
her  room  was  not  occupied.  Most  of  the  members 
of  the  faculty  seem  to  have  come  out  of  the  build- 
ing as  soon  as  the  students  did,  but  two  or  three,  in 
the  east  end  away  from  the  fire,  lingered  to  save  a 
very  few  of  their  smaller  possessions. 

The  students,  once  out,  were  not  allowed  to  re- 
enter the  building,  and  they  did  not  attempt  to  dis- 
obey, but  formed  a  long  fire  line  which  was  soon 
lengthened  by  girls  from  other  dormitories  and  ex- 
tended from  the  front  of  College  Hall  to  the  library. 
\  ery  few  things  above  the  first  floor  were  saved, 
but  man\-  books,  pictures,  and  papers  went  down 
this  long  line  of  students  to  find  temporary  shelter 

224 


THE   FIRE:    AN    INTERLUDE 

in  the  basement  of  the  library.  Associate  Professor 
Shackford,  who  wrote  the  account  of  the  fire  in  the 
College  News,  from  which  these  details  are  taken, 
tells  us  how  Miss  Pendleton,  patrolling  this  busy 
fire  line  and  questioning  the  half-clad  workers,  was 
met  with  the  immediate  response,  even  from  those 
who  were  still  barefooted,  "I'm  perfectly  comfort- 
able, Miss  Pendleton",  "I'm  perfectly  all  right,  Miss 
Pendleton."     Miss  Shackford  adds  : 

"At  about  five  o'clock,  a  person  coming  from  the 
hill  saw  College  Hall  burning  between  the  dining- 
room  and  Center,  apparently  from  the  third  floor 
up  to  the  roof,  in  high,  clear  flames  with  very  little 
smoke.  Suddenly  the  whole  top  seemed  to  catch 
fire  at  once,  and  the  blaze  rushed  downward  and 
upward,  leaping  in  the  dull  gray  atmosphere  of  a 
foggy  morning.  With  a  terrific  crash  the  roof  fell 
in,  and  soon  every  window  in  the  front  of  College 
Hall  was  filled  with  roaring  flames,  surging  toward 
the  east,  framed  in  the  dark  red  brick  wall  which 
served  to  accentuate  the  lurid  glow  that  had  seized 
and  held  a  building  almost  one  eighth  of  a  mile  long. 
The  roar  of  devastating  fury,  the  crackle  of  brands, 
the  smell  of  burning  wood  and  melting  iron,  filled 
the  air,  but  almost  no  sound  came  from  the  human 
beings  who  saw  the  irrepressible  blaze  consume 
everything  but   the  brick  walls. 

"2*2. > 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

"The  old  library  and  the  chapel  were  soon  filled 
with  great  billows  of  flame,  which,  finding  more 
space  for  action,  made  a  spectacle  of  majestic  but 
awful  splendor.  Eddies  of  fire  crept  along  the  black- 
walnut  bookcases,  and  all  that  dark  framework  of 
our  beloved  old  library.  By  great  strides  the  blaze 
advanced,  until  innumerable  curling,  writhing  flames 
were  rioting  all  through  a  spot  always  hushed  'in 
the  quiet  and  still  air  of  delightful  studies.'  The 
fire  raged  across  the  walls,  in  and  around  the  sides 
and  the  beautiful  curving  tops  of  the  windows  that 
for  so  many  springs  and  summers  had  framed 
spaces  of  green  grass  on  which  fitful  shadows  had 
fallen,  to  be  dreamed  over  by  generations  of  stu- 
dents. In  the  chapel,  tremendous  waves  swelled 
and  glowed,  reaching  almost  from  floor  to  ceiling, 
as  they  erased  the  texts  from  the  walls,  demolished 
the  stained-glass  windows,  defaced,  but  did  not 
completely  destroy  the  college  motto  graven  over 
them,  and,  in  convulsive  gusts  swept  from  end  to 
end  of  the  chapel,  pouring  in  and  out  of  the  windows 
in  brilliant  light  and  color.  Seen  from  the  campus 
below,  the  burning  east  end  of  the  building  loomed 
up  magnificent  even  in  the  havoc  and  desolation  it 
was  suffering." 

At  half  past  eight  o'clock,  four  hours  after  the 
first    alarm    was    sounded,    there    stood    on    the    hill 

226 


<  - 


Tlic    l'.a^t     Door    and    the    I.on^    Corridor    after    t\w    I 


THE   FIRE:    AN   INTERLUDE 

above  the  lake,  bare,  roofless  walls  and  sky-filled 
arches  as  august  as  any  medieval  castle  of  Europe. 
Like  Thomas  the  Rhymer,  they  had  spent  the  night 
in  fairyland,  and  waked  a  thousand  years  old.  Ro- 
mance  already  whispered  through  their  dismantled, 
endless  aisles.  King  Arthur's  eastle  of  Camelot  was 
not  more  remote  from  to-day  than  College  Hall 
from  the  twentieth-century  March  morning.  Weeks, 
months,  a  little  while  it  stood  there,  vanishing  — 
like  old  enchanted  Merlin  —  into  the  impenetrable 
prison  of  the  air.  There  will  be  other  houses  on 
that  hilltop,  but  never  one  so  permanent  as  the 
dear  house  invisible;  the  double  Latin  cross,  the 
ten  granite  columns,  the  Center  ever  green  with 
ageless  palms,  the  "steadfast  crosses,  ever  pointing 
the  heavenward  way",  —  to  eyes  that  see,  these 
have  never  disappeared. 

At  half  past  eight  o'clock,  in  the  crowded  college 
chapel.  President  Pendleton  was  saying  to  her  dazed 
and  stricken  flock,  "We  know  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  —  who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ.'"  And 
when  she  had  given  thanks,  in  prayer,  for  so  many 
lives  all  blessedly  safe,  there  came  the  announce- 
ment, so  quiet,  so  startling,  that  the  spring  term 
would  begin  on  April  7.  the  date  already  set  in  the 
college   calendar.      This    was    the    voice   of  one    who 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

actually  believed  that  faith  would  remove  moun- 
tains. And  it  did.  By  the  faith  of  President 
Pendleton,  Wellesley  College  is  alive  to-day.  She 
did  literally  and  actually  cast  the  mountain  into  the 
sea  on  that  seventeenth  of  March,  1914.  St.  Patrick 
himself  never  achieved  a  greater  miracle. 

She  knew  that  two  hundred  and  sixteen  people 
were  houseless  ;  that  the  departments  of  Zoology, 
Geology,  Physics,  and  Psychology,  had  lost  their 
laboratories,  their  equipment,  their  lecture  rooms ; 
that  twenty-eight  recitation  rooms,  all  the  adminis- 
trative offices,  the  offices  of  twenty  departments,  the 
assembly  hall,  the  study  hall,  had  all  been  swept 
away.  Yet,  in  a  little  less  than  three  weeks,  there 
had  sprung  up  on  the  campus  a  temporary  building 
containing  twenty-nine  lecture  and  recitation  rooms, 
thirteen  department  offices,  fifteen  administrative 
offices,  three  dressing  rooms,  and  a  reception  room. 
Plumbing,  steam  heat,  electricity,  and  telephone  serv- 
ice had  been  installed.  A  week  after  college  opened 
for  the  spring  term,  classes  were  meeting  in  the  new 
building.  During  that  first  week,  offices  and  classes 
had  been  scattered  all  over  the  campus,  —  in  the 
Society  houses,  in  the  basements  of  dormitories,  the 
Art  Building,  the  Chemistry  Building,  the  Gym- 
nasium, the  basement  of  the  Library,  the  Observa- 
tory, the  Stone  Hall  Botany  Laboratories,  Billings 

228 


THE    FIRE:    AN   INTERLUDE 

Hall ;  all  had  opened  their  doors  wide.  The  two 
hundred  and  sixteen  residents  of  old  College  Hall 
had  all  been  housed  on  the  campus  ;  it  meant  dou- 
bling up  in  single  rooms,  but  the  doublets  persuaded 
themselves  and  the  rest  of  the  college  that  it  was  a 
lark. 

This  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  cheer  began  on  the 
day  of  the  fire,  and  seems  to  have  acquired  added 
momentum  with  the  passing  months.  Clothes, 
books,  money,  were  loaned  as  a  matter  of  course. 
By  half  past  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  dean  had  written  out  from  memory  the 
long  schedule  of  the  June  examinations,  to  be  posted 
at  the  beginning  of  the  spring  term.  Members  of 
the  faculty  were  conducting  a  systematic  search  for 
salvage  among  the  articles  that  had  been  dumped 
temporarily  in  the  "Barn"  and  the  library;  homes 
had  been  found  for  the  houseless  teachers,  most  of 
whom  had  lost  everything  the)'  possessed  ;  several 
members  of  the  faculty  had  no  permanent  home  but 
the  college,  and  their  worldly  goods  were  stored  in 
the  attic  from  which  nothing  could  be  saved.  It  is 
said  that  when  President  Pendleton,  in  chapel,  told 
the  students  t<>  g<  >  home  as  soon  as  the}"  had  col- 
lected their  possessions,  "an  unmistakable  ripple  of 
girlish  laughter  ran  through  the  dispossessed  con- 
gregation."    This     was     the     Franciscan     spirit     in 

22  <) 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

which  Wellesley  women  took  their  personal  losses. 
For  the  general  losses,  all  mourned  together,  but 
with  hope  and  courage.  In  the  Department  of 
Physics,  all  the  beautiful  instruments  which  Pro- 
fessor Whiting  had  been  so  wisely  and  lovingly  pro- 
curing, since  she  first  began  to  equip  her  student- 
laboratory  in  1878,  were  swept  away;  Geology  and 
Psychology  suffered  only  less ;  but  the  most  har- 
rowing losses  were  those  in  the  Department  of 
Zoology,  where,  besides  the  destruction  of  labora- 
tories and  instruments,  and  the  special  library  pre- 
sented to  the  department  by  Professor  Emeritus 
Alary  A.  Willcox,  "the  fruits  of  years  of  special  re- 
search work  which  had  attracted  international  at- 
tention have  been  destroyed.  .  .  .  Professor  Marion 
Hubbard  had  devoted  her  energies  for  six  years  to 
research  in  variation  and  heredity  in  beetles.  ...  In 
view  of  the  increasing  interest  in  eugenics,  scientists 
awaited  the  results  with  keen  anticipation,  but  all 
the  specimens,  notes,  and  apparatus  were  swept 
away."  Professor  Robertson,  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment, who  is  an  authority  on  certain  deep-sea 
forms  of  life,  had  just  finished  her  report  on  the 
collections  from  the  dredging  expedition  of  the 
Prince  of  Monaco,  which  had  been  sent  her  for 
identification  ;  and  the  report  and  the  collections 
all   were   lost. 

230 


THE   FIRE:    AN   INTERLUDE 

Among  the  few  things  saved  were  some  of  the 
ivies  and  the  roses  which  the  classes  had  planted 
year  by  year;  these  the  fire  had  not  injured;  and 
a  slip  from  the  great  wistaria  vine  on  the  south  6ide 
of  College  Hall  has  proved  to  be  alive  and  vigorous. 
The  alumnae  gavel  and  the  historic  Tree  Day  spade 
were  also  unharmed.  But  that  no  life  was  lost 
outweighs  all  the  other  losses,  and  this  was  due  to 
the  fire  drill  which,  in  one  form  or  another,  has  been 
carried  on  at  Wellcsley  since  the  earliest  years  of  the 
college.  Doctor  Edward  Abbott,  writing  of  Welles- 
Icy  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  August.  1876,  says: 

"Whoever  heard  of  a  fire  brigade  manned  by 
women  ?  There  is  one  at  Wellcsley,  for  it  is  believed 
that  however  incombustible  the  college  building 
may  be,  the  students  should  be  taught  to  put  out 
fire,  .  .  .  and  be  trained  to  presence  of  mind  and 
familiarity  with  the  thought  of  what  ought  to  be 
done  in  ease  of  fire."  From  time  to  time  the  drill 
has  been  strengthened  and  changed  in  detail,  but  in 
1902,  when  Miss  Olive  Davis,  Director  of  Houses 
of  Residence,  was  appointed  by  Miss  Hazard  to  be 
responsible  tor  an  efficient  fire  drill,  the  modern 
system  was  instituted.  An  article  in  College  .\  e:cs 
explains  that  "the  organization  of  the  present  fire- 
drill  system  is  much  like  the  old  one.  With  the 
adoption   <>f   Student    Government,    it    was   put    into 

-2:»1 


THE  STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  hands  of  the  students.  Each  year  a  fire  chief 
is  elected  from  the  student-body,  by  the  students. 
This  girl  is  a  senior.  She  is  counted  an  officer  of 
the  Student  Government  Association,  and  is  re- 
sponsible to  Miss  Davis.  Then  at  meetings  held  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fall  term,  each  dormitory  elects 
one  fire  captain,  who  in  turn  appoints  lieutenants 
under  her,  — one  for  every  twenty  or  twenty-five  girls. 

"The  directions  for  a  fire  drill  are  : 

"Upon  hearing  the  alarm  (five  rings  of  the  house 
bell), 

"i.    Close  your  windows,  doors,  and  transoms. 

"2.    Turn  on  the  electric  lights. 

"3.    March  in  single  file,  and  as  quickly  as  possible, 
downstairs,  and  answer  to  your  roll  call. 

"Each  lieutenant  is  responsible  for  all  the  girls  on 
her  list.  After  the  ringing  of  the  alarm,  she  must 
look  into  every  room  in  her  district  and  see  that  the 
directions  have  been  complied  with  and  the  inmates 
have  gone  downstairs.  If  the  windows  and  doors 
have  not  been  shut,  she  must  shut  them.  Then  she 
goes  downstairs  and  calls  her  roll  (some  lieutenants 
memorize  their  lists).  When  the  lieutenants  have 
finished,  the  captain  calls  the  roll  of  the  lieutenants, 
asking  for  the  number  absent  in  each  district,  and 
the  number  of  windows  and  doors  left  open  or 
lights  not  lighted,  if  any. 

232 


THE   FIRE:    AN  INTERLUDE 

"The  captains  arc  required  to  hold  two  drills  a 
month.  At  the  regular  meetings  of  the  organiza- 
tion at  which  the  fire  chief  presides  and  Miss  Davis 
is  often  present,  the  captains  report  the  dates  of  their 
drills,  the  time  of  day  they  were  held,  the  number  of 
absentees  and  their  reasons,  the  time  required  to 
empty  the  building,  and  the  order  observed  by  the 
girls. 

"Drills  may  be  called  by  the  captain  at  any  time 
of  the  day  or  night.  Frequently  there  were  drills 
at  College  Hall  when  it  was  crowded  with  non- 
resident students,  there  for  classes.  In  that  case  no 
roll  was  called,  but  merely  the  time  required  and  the 
order  reported.  The  penalty  for  non-attendance  at 
fire  drills  is  a  fine  of  fifty  cents,  and  a  serious  error 
credited  to  the  absentee. 

"There  are  devices  such  as  blocking  some  of  the 
staircases  to  train  the  girls  for  an  emergency.  It 
was  being  planned,  just  about  the  time  College  Hall 
burned,  to  have  a  fire  drill  there  with  artificial  smoke, 
to  test  the  girls.  The  system  is  still  being  con- 
stantly changed  and  improved.  On  Miss  Davis's 
desk,  the  night  of  the  fire,  was  the  rough  draft  of  a 
plan  by  which  property  could  be  better  saved  in 
case  of  fire,  without  more  danger  to  life." 

A  few  weeks  after  the  burning  of  College  Hall, 
a  small  fire  broke  out  at  the  Zeta  Alpha  House,  but 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

was  immediately  quenched,  and  Associate  Professor 
Josephine  H.  Batchelder,  of  the  class  of  1896,  writing 
in  College  News  of  the  self-control  of  the  students, 
says  : 

"Perhaps  the  best  example  of  'Wellesley  discipline 
since  the  fire,'  occurred  during  the  brief  excitement 
occasioned  by  the  Zeta  Alpha  House  fire.  A  few 
days  before  this,  a  special  plea  had  been  made  for 
good  order  and  concentrated  work  in  an  overcrowded 
laboratory,  where  forty-six  students,  two  divisions, 
were  obliged  to  meet  at  the  same  time.  On  this 
morning,  the  professor  looked  up  suddenly  at  sounds 
of  commotion  outside.  'Why,  there's  a  fire-engine 
going  back  to  the  village!'  she  said.  'Oh,  yes,' 
responded  a  girl  near  the  window.  'We  saw  it 
come  up  some  time  ago,  but  you  were  busy  at  the 
blackboard,  so  we  didn't  disturb  you.'  The  pro- 
fessor looked  over  her  roomful  of  students  quietly 
at  work.  'Well,'  she  said,  'I've  heard  a  good  deal  of 
boasting  about  various  things  the  girls  were  doing. 
Now  I'm  going  to  begin  !'" 

And  this  self-control  does  not  fail  as  the  months 
pass.  The  temporary  administration  building,  which 
the  students  have  dubbed  the  Hencoop,  tests  the 
good  temper  of  every  member  of  the  college.  Like 
Chaucer's  wicker  House  of  Rumors  it  is  riddled  with 
vagrant  noises,  but  as  it  does  not  whirl  about  upon 

234 


THE   FIRE:    AN   INTERLUDE 

its  base,  it  lacks  the  sanitary  ventilating  qualities  of 
its  dizzy  prototype.  On  the  south  it  is  exposed  to 
the  composite,  unmuted  discords  of  Music  Hall ; 
on  the  north,  the  busy  motors  ply;  within,  nineteen 
of  the  twenty-six  academic  departments  of  the 
college  conduct  their  classes,  between  walls  so  thin 
that  every  classroom  may  hear,  if  it  will,  the  recita- 
tions to  right  of  it,  recitations  to  left  of  it,  recitations 
across  the  corridor,  volley  and  thunder.  Though 
the}'  all  conscientiously  try  to  roar  as  gently  as  any 
sucking  dove.  The  effect  upon  the  unconcentrated 
mind  is  something  like — The  cosine  of  X  plus  the 
ezvig  zveibliche  makes  the  difference  between  the 
message  of  Carlyle  and  that  of  Matthew  Arnold 
antedate  the  Bergsonian  theory  of  the  elan  vital 
minus  the  sine  of  V  since  Barbarians,  Philistines  and 
Populace  make  up  the  eternal  flux  wo  die  citronen 
bliihn  -  but  fortunately  the  Weilesley  mind  does 
concentrate,  and  uncomplainingly.  The  students 
are  working  in  these  murmurous  classrooms  with  a 
new  seriousness  and  a  devotion  which  disregard  all 
petty    inconveniences    and    obstacles. 

And  the  tire  has  kindled  a  flame  of  friendliness 
between  faculty  and  students;  it  has  burned  away 
the  artificial  pedagogic  barriers  and  quickened  human 
relations.  The  flames  were  not  quenched  before 
the  students  had  begun  to  plan  to  help  in  the  crippled 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

courses  of  study.  They  put  themselves  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  faculty  for  all  sorts  of  work  ;  they  offered 
their  notes,  their  own  books  ;  they  drew  maps  ;  they 
mounted  specimens  on  slides  for  the  Department  of 
Zoology.  In  that  crowded,  noisy,  one-story  building 
there  are  not  merely  the  teachers  and  the  taught,  but 
a  body  of  tried  friends,  moving  shoulder  to  shoulder 
on  pilgrimage  to  truth. 


236 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    LOYAL    ALUMX/E 
I 

EVER  since  we  became  a  nation,  it  has  been 
our  habit  to  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the 
democratic  character  of  our  American  system  of 
education.  In  the  early  days,  neither  poverty  nor 
social  position  was  a  bar  to  the  child  who  loved  his 
books.  The  daughter  of  the  hired  man  "spelled 
down"  the  farmer's  son  in  the  district  school;  the 
poor  country  boy  and  girl  earned  their  board  and 
tuition  at  the  academy  by  doing  chores;  American 
colleges  made  no  distinctions  between  "gentlemen 
commoners"  and  common  folk;  and  as  our  public 
school  system  developed  its  kindergartens,  its  pri- 
mary, grammar,  and  high  schools,  free  to  any  child 
living  in  the  United  States,  irrespective  of  his  father's 
wraith,  social  status,  or  citizenship,  we  might  well 
be  excused  for  thinking  that  the  last  word  in  demo- 
cratic education  had  been  spoken. 

But  since  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century, 
two   new   voices   have   begun   to  be   heard;    at   first 

237 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

sotto  voce,  they  have  risen  through  a  murmurous 
pianissimo  to  a  decorous  non  troppo  forte,  and  they 
continue  crescendo,  —  the  voice  of  the  teacher  and 
the  voice  of  the  graduate.  And  the  burden  of  their 
message  is  that  no  educational  system  is  genuinely 
democratic  which  may  ignore  with  impunity  the 
criticisms  and  suggestions  of  the  teacher  who  is 
expected  to  carry  out  the  system  and  the  graduate 
who  is  asked  to  finance  it. 

The  teachers'  point  of  view  is  finding  expression 
in  the  various  organizations  of  public  school  teachers 
in  Chicago,  New  York,  and  elsewhere,  looking 
towards  reform,  both  local  and  general ;  and  in 
the  movement  towards  the  formation  of  a  National 
Association  of  College  Professors,  started  in  the 
spring  of  191 3  by  professors  of  Columbia  and  Johns 
Hopkins.  At  a  preliminary  meeting  at  Baltimore, 
in  November,  191 3,  unofficial  representatives  from 
Johns  Hopkins,  Yale,  Harvard,  Princeton,  Cornell, 
Columbia,  Clark,  and  Wisconsin  were  present,  and  a 
committee  of  twenty-five  was  appointed,  with  Pro- 
fessor Dewey  of  Columbia  as  chairman,  "to  arrange 
a  plan  of  organization  and  draw  up  a  constitution." 
President  Schurman,  in  a  report  to  the  trustees  of 
Cornell,  makes  the  situation  clear  when  he  says  : 

"The    university   is    an    intellectual   organization, 
composed    essentially   of   devotees    of    knowledge  — 

238 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

some  investigating,  some  communicating,  some 
acquiring  —  but  all  dedicated  to  the  intellectual 
life.  .  .  .  The  Faculty  is  essentially  the  university; 
yet  in  the  governing  boards  of  American  universities 
the  Faculty  is  without  representation."  President 
Schurman  has  suggested  that  one  third  of  the  board 
consist  of  faculty  representatives.  At  Wellesley, 
since  the  founder's  death,  the  trustees  have  welcomed 
recommendations  from  the  faculty  for  departmental 
appointments  and  promotions,  and  this  practice 
now  obtains  at  Yale  and  Princeton  ;  the  trustees  of 
Princeton  have  also  voted  voluntarily  to  confer  on 
academic  questions  with  a  committee  elected  by  the 
faculty. 

An  admirable  exposition  of  the  teachers'  case  is 
found  in  an  article  on  "Academic  Freedom"  by 
Professor  Howard  Crosby  Warren  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Psychology  at  Princeton,  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  November,  191 4.  Professor  Warren 
says  that  "In  point  of  fact,  the  teacher  to-day  is  not 
a  free,  responsible  agent.  His  career  is  practically 
under  the  control  of  laymen.  Fully  three  quarters 
of  our  scholars  occupy  academic  positions  ;  and  in 
America,  at  least,  the  teaching  investigator,  whatever 
professional  standing  he  may  have  attained,  is 
subject  to  the  direction  of  some  body  of  men  outside 
his    own    craft.     As    investigator    he    may    be    quite 

239 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

untrammeled,  but  as  teacher,  it  has  been  said,  he  is 
half  tyrant  and  half  slave.   .   .   . 

"The  scholar  is  dependent  for  opportunity  to 
practice  his  calling,  as  well  as  for  material  advance- 
ment, on  a  governing  board  which  is  generally  con- 
trolled by  clergymen,  financiers,  or  representatives 
of  the  state.   .   .   . 

"The  absence  of  true  professional  responsibility, 
coupled  with  traditional  accountability  to  a  group  of 
men  devoid  of  technical  training,  narrows  the  out- 
look of  the  average  college  professor  and  dwarfs  his 
ideals.  Any  serious  departure  from  existing  educa- 
tional practice,  such  as  the  reconstruction  of  a  course 
or  the  adoption  of  a  new  study,  must  be  justified  by 
a  group  of  laymen  and  their  executive  agent.   .   .   . 

"In  determining  the  professional  standing  of  a 
scholar  and  the  soundness  of  his  teachings,  surely 
the  profession  itself  should  be  the  court  of  last 
appeal." 

The  point  of  view  of  the  graduate  has  been  defining 
itself  slowly,  but  with  increasing  clearness,  ever  since 
the  governing  boards  of  the  colleges  made  the  very 
practical  discovery  that  it  was  the  duty  and  privilege 
of  the  alumnus  to  raise  funds  for  the  support  of  his 
Alma  Mater.  It  was  but  natural  that  the  graduates 
who  banded  together,  usually  at  the  instigation  of 
trustees  or  directors  and  always  with  their  blessing, 

240 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNJ3 

to  secure  the  conditional  gifts  proffered  to  universi- 
ties and  colleges  by  American  multimillionaires, 
should  quickly  become  sensitive  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  no  power  to  direct  the  spending  of  the 
money  which  they  had  so  efficiently  and  laboriously 
collected.  An  individual  alumnus  with  sufficient 
wealth  to  endow  a  chair  or  to  erect  a  building  could 
usually  give  his  gift  on  his  own  terms  ;  but  alumni 
as  a  body  had  no  way  of  influencing  the  policy  of  the 
institutions   which    they   were    helping  to    support. 

The  result  of  this  awakening  has  been  what  Presi- 
dent Emeritus  William  Jewett  Tucker  of  Dartmouth 
has  called  the  "Alumni  Movement."  More  than 
ten  years  ago,  President  Hadley  of  Yale  was  aware 
of  the  stirrings  of  this  movement,  when  he  said, 
"The  influence  of  the  public  sentiment  of  the  grad- 
uates is  so  overwhelming,  that  wherever  there  is  a 
chance  for  its  organized  cooperation,  faculties  and 
students   .   .   .  are  only  too  glad  to  follow  it." 

It  would  be  incorrect,  however,  to  give  the  im- 
pression that  graduates  had  had  absolutely  no  share 
in  the  government  of  their  respective  colleges  before 
the  Alumni  Movement  assumed  its  present  propor- 
tions. Representatives  of  the  alumni  have  had  a 
voice  in  the  affairs  of  Harvard,  Yale,  and  Princeton. 
Self-perpetuating  boards  of  trustees  have  elected 
to    their   membership   a   certain    number   of   mature 

241 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

alumni.  In  some  instances,  as  at  Wellesley,  the 
association  of  graduates  nominates  the  candidates 
for  graduate  vacancies  on  these  boards. 

The  benefits  of  alumnae  representation  on  the 
Board  of  Trustees  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the 
alumnae  and  the  trustees  of  Wellesley  almost  simul- 
taneously. As  early  as  June,  1888,  the  Alumnae  Asso- 
ciation of  Wellesley  appointed  a  committee  to  pre- 
sent to  the  trustees  a  request  for  alumnae  representa- 
tion on  the  Board  ;  but  as  the  Association  met  but 
once  a  year,  results  could  not  be  achieved  rapidly, 
and  in  June,  1889,  the  committee  reported  that  it 
had  not  presented  the  petition  as  it  had  been  informed 
unofficially  that  the  possibility  of  alumnae  representa- 
tion was  already  under  consideration  by  the  trustees. 
In  fact,  the  trustees,  at  a  meeting  held  the  day 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Alumnae  Association,  this 
very  June  of  1889,  had  elected  Mrs.  Marian  Pelton 
Guild,  of  the  class  of  1880,  a  life  member  of  the 
Board. 

But  the  alumnae,  although  appreciating  the  honor 
done  them  by  the  election  of  Mrs.  Guild,  still  did 
not  feel  that  the  question  of  representation  had  been 
adequately  met,  and  in  June,  1891,  a  new  committee 
was  appointed  with  instructions  to  inform  itself 
thoroughly  as  to  methods  employed  in  other  colleges 
to  insure  the  representation  of  the  graduate  body  on 

^242 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNJE 

governing  boards,  and  also  to  convey  to  the  trustees 
the  alumnae's  strong  desire  for  representation  of  a 
specified  character.  And  a  second  time  the  trustees 
forestalled  the  committee  and,  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  the  Association  and  read  at  the  annual  meeting  in 
June,  1892,  made  known  their  desire  "to  avail 
themselves  of  the  cooperation  of  the  Association'* 
and  to  "cement  more  closely  the  bond"  uniting  the 
alumnae  to  the  college  by  granting  them  further 
representation  on  the  Board  of  Trustees.  A  com- 
mittee from  the  Association  was  then  appointed  to 
discuss  methods  with  a  committee  from  the  Board, 
and  the  results  of  their  deliberations  are  given  by 
Harriet  Brewer  Sterling,  Wellesley,  '86,  in  an 
article  in  the  Wellesley  Magazine  for  March,  1895. 
By  the  terms  of  a  joint  agreement  between  the  Board 
and  the  Association,  the  Association  has  the  right 
to  nominate  three  members  from  its  own  number  for 
membership  on  the  Board.  These  nominees  must 
be  graduates  of  seven  years'  standing,  not  members 
of  the  college  faculty.  Graduates  of  less  than  three 
years'  standing  are  not  qualified  to  vote  for  the 
nominees.  The  nominations  must  be  ratified  by  the 
Board  of  Trustees.  The  term  of  service  of  these 
alumna:  trustees  is  six  years,  but  a  nominee  is  chosen 
every  two  years.  In  order  to  establish  this  method 
of  rotation,  two  of  the  three  candidates  first   nomi- 

243 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

nated  served  for  two  and  four  years  respectively, 
instead  of  six.  The  first  election  was  held  in  the 
spring  of  1894,  the  nominations  were  confirmed  by 
the  Board  in  November,  and  the  three  new  trustees 
sat  with  the  Board  for  the  first  time  at  the  February 
meeting  of  1895. 

But  as  graduate  organizations  have  increased  in 
size,  and  membership  has  been  scattered  over  a  wider 
geographical  area,  it  has  become  correspondingly  . 
difficult  to  get  at  the  consensus  of  graduate  opinion 
on  college  matters  and  to  make  sure  that  alumni,  or 
alumnae,  representatives  actually  do  represent  their 
constituents  and  carry  out  their  wishes.  And  the 
Alumni  Movement  has  arisen  to  meet  the  need  for 
"greater  unity  of  organization   in   alumni  bodies." 

In  an  article  on  Graduate  Councils,  in  the 
Welle sley  College  News  for  April,  1914,  Florence  S. 
Marcy  Crofut,  Wellesley,  '97,  has  collected  inter- 
esting evidence  of  the  impetus  and  expansion  of  this 
new  factor  in  the  college  world.  She  writes,  "More 
clearly  than  generalization  would  show,  proofs  lie 
in  actual  organization  and  accomplishments  of  the 
'Alumni  Movement'  which  has  worked  itself  out 
in  what  may  be  called  the  Graduate  Council  Move- 
ment. .  .  .  Since  the  organization  of  the  Graduate 
Council  of  Princeton  University  in  January,  1905, 
the  Secretary,  Mr.  H.  G.  Murray,  to  whom  Wellesley 

c24-t 


THE    LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

is  deeply  indebted,  has  received  requests  from  twenty- 
nine  colleges  for  information  in  regard  to  the  work  of 
Princeton's  Council." 

Among  these  twenty-nine  colleges  was  Wellesley, 
and  the  plan  for  her  Graduate  Council,  presented 
by  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Alumnae  Association 
to  the  business  meeting  of  the  Association  on  June  21, 
191 1,  and  voted  at  that  meeting,  is  a  legitimate 
outgrowth  of  the  ideals  which  led  to  the  formation 
of  the  Alumnae  Association  in  1880.  The  preamble 
of  the  Association   makes   this   clear  when   it   says  : 

''Remembering  the  benefits  we  have  received  from 
our  alma  mater,  we  desire  to  extend  the  helpful 
associations  of  student  life,  and  to  maintain  such 
relations  to  the  college  that  we  may  efficiently  aid 
in  her  upbuilding  and  strengthening,  to  the  end  that 
her   usefulness    may   continually   increase." 

In  an  article  describing  the  formation  of  the 
Wellesley  Graduate  Council,  in  the  Wellesley  College 
Nezvs  for  October  5,  191 1,  it  is  explained  that, 
"From  the  time  since  the  1910-12  Executive  Board 
(of  the  Alumnae  Association)  came  into  office,  it  has 
felt  that  there  was  need  for  a  bond  between  the 
alumnae,  and  the  college  administration  ;  and  it 
believes  that  this  need  will  be  met  by  a  small  repre- 
sentative {i.e.  geographical)  definitely  chosen  grad- 
uate bod}',  which  shall  act  as  a  clearing-house  for  the 

245 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

larger  Alumnae  Association.  The  Executive  Board 
recognized  also  as  an  additional  reason  for  organiz- 
ing such  a  graduate  body,  that  it  was  necessary  to 
do  so  if  the  Wellesley  Alumnae  Association  is  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  activities  in  similar  organizations." 
The  purpose  of  the  Council,  as  stated  in  191 1,  is  a 
fitting  expansion  of  the  Association's  preamble  of 
1880: 

"That,  as  our  alumnae  are  increasing  in  large 
numbers  and  are  scattered  more  and  more  widely, 
it  will  be  of  advantage  to  them  and  to  the  college 
that  an  organized,  accredited  group  of  alumnae  shall 
be  chosen  from  different  parts  of  the  country  to 
confer  with  the  college  authorities  on  matters 
affecting  both  alumnae  and  undergraduate  interests, 
as  well  as  to  furnish  the  college,  by  this  group,  the 
means  of  testing  the  sentiment  of  Wellesley  women 
throughout  the  country  on  any  matter." 

There  are  advantages  in  not  being  a  pioneer,  and 
Wellesley  has  been  able  to  profit  by  the  experience 
of  her  predecessors  in  this  movement,  particularly 
Princeton  and  Smith.  Membership  in  the  Councils 
of  Wellesley  and  Smith  is  essentially  on  the  same 
geographical  basis,  but  Wellesley  is  unique  among 
the  Councils  in  having  a  faculty  representation. 
The  relation  between  faculty  and  alumnae  at  Welles- 
ley has  always  been  markedly  cordial,  and  in  wel- 

246 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

coming  to  the  Council  representatives  of  the  faculty 
who  are  not  graduates  of  the  college,  the  alumnae 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  their  aims  and  ideals  for 
their  Alma  Mater  are  at  one  with  those  of  the  faculty. 
The  membership  of  the  Wellesley  Graduate  Coun- 
cil is  composed  of  the  president  and  dean  of  the  col- 
lege, ex  officio ;  ten  members  of  the  Academic  Council, 
chosen  by  that  bod}',  no  more  than  two  of  whom 
may  be  alumnae  ;  the  three  alumnae  trustees ;  the 
members  of  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Alumnae 
Association  ;  and  the  councilors  from  the  Wellesley 
clubs.  As  there  were  more  than  fifty  Wellesley 
clubs  already  in  existence  in  191 5,  and  every  club 
of  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  members  is 
allowed  one  councilor,  and  ever}'  club  of  more  than 
one  hundred  members  is  allowed  one  councilor  for 
each  additional  hundred,  while  neighboring  clubs 
of  less  than  twenty-five  members  may  unite  and  be 
represented  jointly  by  one  councilor,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  Council  is  a  large  and  constantly  growing 
body.  Clubs  such  as  the  Boston  Wellesley  Club, 
and  the  Xew  York  Wellesley  Club,  which  already 
had  a  large  membership,  received  a  tremendous 
impetus  to  increase  their  numbers  after  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Council.  All  members  of  the  Council, 
with  the  exception  of  the  president  of  the  college 
and  the  dean,  who  are  permanent,  serve  for  two  years. 

^247 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

The  officers  of  the  Graduate  Council  are  the  cor- 
responding officers  of  the  Alumnae  Association,  and 
also  serve  for  two  years.  The  Executive  Committee 
of  five  members  includes  the  president  and  secretary 
of  the  Council,  an  alumna  trustee  chosen  annually 
from  their  own  number  by  the  three  alumnae  trustees, 
and  two  members  at  large. 

The  Council  meets  twice  during  the  academic  year, 
at  the  college ;  in  February,  for  a  period  of  three 
days  or  less,  following  the  mid-year  examinations, 
and  in  June,  when  the  annual  meeting  is  held  at  some 
time  previous  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Alumnae 
Association.  In  this  respect  the  Wellesley  Council 
again  differs  from  that  of  Smith,  whose  committee 
of  five  makes  but  one  official  annual  visit  to  the 
college,  —  in  January.  The  "Vassar  Provisional 
Alumnae  Council",  like  the  Wellesley  Graduate 
Council,  must  hold  at  least  two  yearly  meetings 
at  the  college,  but  unlike  Wellesley,  it  elects  a  chair- 
man who  may  not  be  at  the  same  time  the  President 
of  the  Vassar  Associate  Alumnae.  Bryn  Mawr, 
we  are  told  by  Miss  Crofut,  has  no  Graduate  Coun- 
cil corresponding  exactly  to  the  Councils  of  other 
colleges ;  but  her  academic  committee  of  seven 
members  meets  "at  least  once  a  year  with  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  College  and  a  committee  of  the  faculty 
to  discuss  academic  affairs." 

248 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMXjE 

The  possibilities  which  lie  before  the  Wellcsley 
Council  may  be  better  understood  if  we  enumerate  a 
few  of  the  activities  undertaken  by  the  Councils  of 
other  colleges.  At  Princeton,  since  1905,  more 
than  two  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  has 
been  raised  by  the  Council's  efforts.  The  Precep- 
torial System  has  been  inaugurated  and  is  being 
slowly  developed.  The  university  has  been  brought 
more  prominently  before  preparatory  schools.  All 
the  colleges  are  feeling  the  need  of  keeping  in  touch 
with  the  preparatory  schools,  not  for  the  sake  of 
mere  numbers,  but  to  secure  the  best  students. 
Doctor  Tucker  has  suggested  that  Dartmouth  alumni 
endow  outright,  "substantial  scholarships  in  high 
schools  with  which  it  is  desirable  to  establish  rela- 
tions," and  the  suggestion  is  well  worth  the  considera- 
tion of  Wellcsley  women.  The  Yale  Alumni  Advis- 
ory Board  has  distributed  to  the  "so-called  Yale 
Preparatory  Schools"  and  to  schoolboys  in  many 
cities,  a  pamphlet  on  "Life  at  Yale."  And  Yale  has 
also  turned  its  attention  to  tuition  charges,  "aca- 
demic-Sheffield relations ",  the  future  of  the  Yale 
Medical  School,  the  Graduate  Employment  Bureau. 

All  of  these  Councils  are  concerned  with  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  tone  of  the  undergraduates. 
Wellesley's  Graduate  Council  has  a  Publicity  Com- 
mittee, one  of  whose  functions  is  to  prevent  wrong 

24!) 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

reports  of  college  matters  from  getting  into  the  press. 
Mrs.  Helene  Buhlert  Magee,  Wellesley,  '03,  who 
was  made  Chairman  of  the  Intercollegiate  Committee 
on  Press  Bureaus,  in  1914,  and  was  at  that  time  also 
the  Manager  of  the  Wellesley  Press  Board,  reminds 
us  that  Wellesley  is  the  only  college  trying  to  regulate 
its  publicity  through  its  alumnae  clubs  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  and  gives  us  reason  to  hope 
that  in  time  we  shall  have  publicity  agents  trained 
in  good  methods,  "since  the  members  of  each  year's 
College  Press  Board,  as  they  go  forth,  naturally 
become  the  press  representatives  of  their  respective 
clubs." 

The  Council  has  also  a  Committee  on  Under- 
graduate Activities,  whose  duty  it  is  to  "obtain 
information  regarding  the  interests  of  the  under- 
graduates and  from  time  to  time  to  make  suggestions 
concerning  the  conduct  of  the  same  as  they  affect 
the  alumnae  or  bring  the  college  before  the  general 
public."  This  committee  proposes  a  Rally  Day 
and  a  Freshman  Forum,  to  be  conducted  each  year 
by  a  representative  alumna  equipped  to  set  forth 
the  ideals  and  principles  held  by  the  alumnae. 

A  third  committee,  bearing  a  direct  relation  to  the 
undergraduate,  is  one  on  Vocational  Guidance.  In 
order  to  help  students  "to  find  their  way  to  work 
other  than  teaching,"  and  to  "present  a  survey  of  all 

250 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNiE 

the  possibilities  open  to  women  in  the  field  of  industry 
to-day, "  this  committee  welcomes  the  cooperation  of 
Miss  Florence  Jackson,  a  graduate  of  Smith  and  for 
some  years  a  member  of  the  Department  of  Chemis- 
try at  Wellesley,  who  is  now  at  the  head  of  the  Ap- 
pointment Bureau  of  the  Women's  Educational  and 
Industrial  Union  of  Boston.  Miss  Jackson's  practi- 
cal knowledge  of  students,  her  wide  acquaintance 
with  vocational  opportunities  other  than  teaching, 
and  her  belief  in  the  "value  of  the  cultural  course 
as  a  sound  general  foundation  most  valuable  for 
providing  the  sense  of  proportion  and  vision  neces- 
sary for  the  college  woman  who  is  to  be  a  useful 
citizen,"  make  her  an  ideal  director  of  this  branch 
of  the  Council's  activities,  and  the  college  gladly 
promotes  her  work  among  the  students  ;  the  seniors 
especially  welcome  her  expert  guidance. 

In  framing  a  model  constitution  for  the  use  of 
alumna?  classes,  the  Council  has  done  a  piece  of  work 
which  should  arouse  the  gratitude  of  all  future  his- 
torians of  Wellesley,  for  the  model  constitution 
contains  an  article  requiring  each  class  to  keep  a 
record  which  shall  contain  brief  information  as  to  the 
members  of  the  class  and  shall  be  published  in  the 
autumn  following  each  reunion.  If  these  records 
are  accurately  kept,  and  if  copies  are  placed  on  file 
in   the  College  Library,   accessible  to  investigators, 

251 


THE   STORY  OF   WELLESLEY 

the  next  historian  of  Wellesley  will  be  spared  the 
baffling  paucity  of  information  concerning  the 
alumnae  which  has  hampered  her  predecessor. 

With  ten  members  of  the  Academic  Council  on 
the  Graduate  Council,  and  with  the  president  of  the 
college  herself  an  alumna,  the  relation  between  the 
faculty  and  the  Graduate  Council,  is  intimate  and 
helpful  to  both,  in  the  best  sense.  Relations  with 
the  trustees,  as  a  body,  were  slower  in  forming. 
President  Pendleton,  at  the  Council's  fifth  session, 
—  in  the  third  year  of  its  existence,  —  reported  the 
trustees  as  much  interested  in  its  formation.  At  the 
sixth  session  of  the  Council,  in  June,  1914,  when  the 
campaign  for  the  Fire  Fund  was  in  full  swing,  Mr. 
Lewis  Kennedy  Morse,  the  able  and  devoted  treas- 
urer of  the  college,  and  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  addressed  the  members  upon  "The  Busi- 
ness Side  of  College  Administration",  —  a  talk  as  in- 
teresting as  it  was  frank  and  friendly.  In  December, 
1914,  when  the  first  of  the  new  buildings  was  already 
going  up  on  the  site  of  old  College  Hall,  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  in- 
vited a  joint  committee  from  the  faculty  and  the 
alumnae  to  meet  with  them  to  discuss  the  architec- 
tural plans  and  possibilities  for  the  "new  Wellesley." 
The  Alumnae  Committee  consisted  of  eleven  members 
and  included  representatives  "from  '83  to  191 3,  and 

252 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNiE 

from  Colorado  on  the  west  to  Massachusetts  on  the 
east."  Its  chairman  was  Candace  C.  Stimson, 
Wellesley,  '92,  whose  name  will  always  ring  through 
Wellesley  history  as  the  Chairman  of  the  Alumnae 
Committee  for  Restoration  and  Endowment,  —  the 
committee  that  conducted  the  great  nine  months' 
campaign  for  the  Fire  Fund.  The  Faculty  Commit- 
tee, of  five  members,  chose  as  its  chairman,  Professor 
Alice  V.  \  .  Brown,  the  head  of  the  Department  of 
Art. 

Miss  Stimson's  report  to  the  Graduate  Council 
of  this  meeting  of  the  joint  committee  with  the 
Executive  Board,  indicates  a  "strong  sense  of  good 
understanding  and  a  feeling  of  great  harmony  and 
desire  for  cooperation  on  the  part  of  Trustees  toward 
the  alumnae."  The  Faculty  Committee  and  Alumnae 
Committee  were  invited  to  continue  and  to  hold 
further  conferences  with  the  Trustees'  Committee 
"as  occasion  might  offer."  The  episode  is  prophetic 
of  the  future  relations  of  these  three  bodies  with 
one  another.  President  Nichols  of  Dartmouth  is 
reported  as  saying  that  Dartmouth,  founded  as  the 
ideal  of  an  individual  and  governed  at  first  by  one 
man,  has  grown  to  the  point  where  it  is  no  longer  to 
be  controlled  as  a  monarch}"  or  an  empire,  but  as  a 
republic.  Such  an  utterance  does  not  fail  of  its 
effect  upon  other  colleges. 

253 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

II 

The  women  who  constitute  the  Wellesley  College 
Alumnae  Association,  numbered  in  1914-1915  five 
thousand  and  thirty-five.  The  members  are  all 
those  who  have  received  the  Baccalaureate  degree 
from  Wellesley,  and  all  those  who  have  received 
the  Master's  degree  and  have  applied  for  member- 
ship. But  only  dues-paying  members  receive  notices 
of  meetings  and  have  the  right  to  vote.  Non-grad- 
uates who  pay  the  annual  dues  receive  the  Alumnce 
Register,  and  the  notices  and  publications  of  the 
alumnae,  but  do  not  vote. 

Authoritative  statistics  concerning  the  occupa- 
tions of  Wellesley  women  are  not  available.  About 
forty  per  cent  of  the  alumnae  are  married.  The  exact 
proportion  of  teachers  is  not  known,  but  it  is  of 
course  large.  The  Wellesley  College  Christian  Asso- 
ciation is  of  great  assistance  to  the  alumnae  recorder 
in  keeping  in  touch  with  Wellesley  missionaries, 
but  even  the  Christian  Association  disclaims  in- 
fallibility in  questions  of  numbers.  An  article  in 
the  Neccs  for  February,  191 2,  by  Professor  Kendrick, 
the  head  of  the  Department  of  Bible  Study,  states 
that  no  record  is  kept  of  missionaries  at  work  in  our 
own  country,  but  there  were  then  missionaries  from 
Wellesley  in  Mexico  and  Brazil,  as  well  as  those  who 

254 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMX^E 

were  doing  city  missionary  work  in  the  United  States. 
The  missionary  record  for  191 5  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  there  were  then  about  one  hundred  Welles- 
ley  women  at  mission  stations  in  foreign  countries, 
including  Japan,  China,  Korea,  India,  Ceylon, 
Persia,  Turkey,  Africa,  Europe,  Mexico,  South 
America,   Alaska,    and    the    Philippines. 

From  time  to  time,  the  alumnae  section  of  the 
News  publishes  an  article  on  the  occupations  and 
professions  of  Wellesley  graduates,  with  incomplete 
lists  of  the  names  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  Law, 
Medicine,  Social  Work,  Journalism,  Teaching,  Busi- 
ness, and  all  the  other  departments  of  life  into  which 
women  are  penetrating;  and  from  this  all  too 
meager  material,  the  historian  is  able  to  glean  a  few 
general  facts,  but  no  trustworthy  statistics. 

In  1 914,  the  list  of  Wellesley  women,  most  of 
whom  were  alumnae,  at  the  head  of  private  schools, 
included  the  principals  of  the  Xational  Cathedral 
School  at  Washington,  D.C.  ;  of  Abbot  Academy, 
Andovcr,  Walnut  Hill  School,  Xatick,  Dana 
Hall,  the  Weston  School,  the  Longwood  School, 
all  in  Massachusetts,  and  two  preparatory 
schools  in  Boston;  Buffalo  Seminary;  Kent 
Place  School,  and  a  coeducational  school,  both  in 
Summit,  Xew  Jersey;  Hosmer  Hall,  in  St.  Louis; 
Ingleside  School,  Taconic  School  and  the  Catherine 

loo 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

Aiken  School,  in  Connecticut;  Science  Hill,  at 
Shelbyville,  Kentucky ;  Ferry  Hall,  at  Lake  Forest, 
Illinois  ;  the  El  Paso  School  for  Girls  ;  the  Lincoln 
School,  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island ;  Wyoming 
Seminary,  another  coeducational  school ;  as  well  as 
schools  for  American  girls  in  Germany,  France,  and 
Italy.  This  does  not  take  into  account  the  many 
Wellesley  graduates  holding  positions  of  importance 
in  colleges,  in  high  schools,  and  in  the  grammar  and 
primary  schools  throughout  the  country. 

The  tentative  list  of  Wellesley  women  holding 
positions  of  importance  in  social  work,  in  1914,  is 
equally  impressive.  The  head  workers  at  Denison 
House,  —  the  Boston  College  Settlement,  —  at  the 
Baltimore  Settlement,  at  Friendly  House,  Brooklyn, 
and  Hartley  House,  New  York,  are  all  graduates  of 
Wellesley.  Probation  officers,  settlement  residents, 
Associated  Charity  workers,  Consumers'  League 
secretaries,  promoters  of  Social  Welfare  Work,  leaders 
of  Working  Girls'  Clubs,  members  of  Trade-union 
Leagues  and  the  Suffrage  League,  show  many  Welles- 
ley names  among  their  numbers.  A  Wellesley 
woman  is  working  at  the  Hindman  School  in  Ken- 
tucky, among  the  poor  whites  ;  another  is  General 
Superintendent  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission 
for  the  Blind  ;  another  is  Associate  Field  Secretary 
of  the  Xew  York  Chanty  Organization  Department 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNiE 

of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation ;  another  is  Head 
Investigator  for  the  Massachusetts  Babies'  Hospital. 
The  Superintendent  of  the  State  Reformatory  for 
Girls  at  Lancaster,  Massachusetts,  is  a  Wellesley 
graduate  who  is  doing  work,  of  unusual  distinction 
in  this  field.  Mary  K.  Conyngton,  Wellesley,  '94, 
took  part  in  the  Federal  investigation  into  the  condi- 
tion of  woman  and  child  wage  earners,  ordered  by 
Congress  in  1907,  and  has  made  a  study  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  occupations,  and  the  criminality, 
of  women.  Her  book  "How  to  Help",  published 
by  The  Macmillan  Company,  embodies  the  results 
of  her  experience  in  organized  charities,  investiga- 
tions for  improved  housing,  and  other  industrial 
and  municipal  reforms.  In  1909,  Miss  Conyngton 
received  a  permanent  appointment  in  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  at  Washington,  D.C. 

Wellesley  has  her  lawyers  and  doctors,  her  archi- 
tects, her  journalists,  her  scholars  ;  every  year 
their  tribes  increase.  Among  her  many  journalists 
are  Caroline  Maddocks,  1892,  and  Agnes  Edwards 
Rothery,  1909. 

Of  her  poets,  novelists,  short  story  writers,  and 
essayists,  the  names  of  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  Estelle 
M.  Hurll,  Abbie  Carter  Goodloe,  Margarita  Spalding 
Gerry,  Florence  \\  ilkinson  Evans,  Florence  Converse, 
Martha     Hale     Shackford,     Annie     Kimball     Tucll, 

257 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

Jeannette  Marks,  are  familiar  to  the  readers  of  the 
Atlantic,  the  Century,  Scribner's  and  other  magazines ; 
and  the  more  technical  publications  of  Gertrude 
Schopperle,  Laura  A.  Hibbard,  Eleanor  A.  McC. 
Gamble,  Lucy  J.  Freeman,  Eloise  Robinson,  and  Flora 
Isabel  McKinnon,  have  won  the  suffrages  of  scholars. 
Her  most  noted  woman  of  letters  is  Katharine 
Lee  Bates,  Wellesley,  '80,  the  beloved  head  of  the 
Department  of  English  Literature.  Miss  Bates's 
beautiful  hymn,  "America",  has  achieved  the  dis- 
tinction of  a  national  reputation ;  it  has  been 
adopted  as  one  of  America's  own  songs  and  is  sung 
by  school  children  all  over  our  country.  The  list 
of  her  books  includes,  besides  her  collected  poems, 
"America  the  Beautiful  and  Other  Poems  ",  published 
by  the  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Company,  volumes  on 
English  and  Spanish  travel,  on  the  English  Religious 
Drama,  a  Chaucer  for  children,  an  edition  of  the 
works  of  Hawthorne,  and  a  forthcoming  edition  of 
the  Elizabethan  dramatist,  Heywood.  Since  her 
undergraduate  days,  when  she  wrote  the  poems  for 
Wellesley's  earliest  festivals,  down  all  the  years  in 
which  she  has  been  building  up  her  Department  of 
English  Literature,  this  loyal  daughter  has  given 
herself  without  stint  to  her  Alma  Mater.  In  Welles- 
ley's  roll  call  of  alumnae,  there  is  no  name  more  loved 
and  honored  than  that  of  Katharine  Lee  Bates. 

258 


-«.M- 


MM 


- '-  -  *i 


1 ..  ?  I 


S^sIijti&T 


-    ^  '     W] 


:f. 


THE  LOYAL  ALUMNA 

III 

"Hear  the  dollars  dropping, 
Listen  as  they  fall. 
All  for  restoration 
Of  our  College  Hall." 

These  words  of  a  college  song  fitly  express  the 
breathless  attitude  of  the  alumnae  between  March 
17,  1914,  and  January  1,  191 5,  the  nine  months  and 
a  half  during  which  the  campaign  was  being  carried 
on  to  raise  the  fund  for  restoration  and  endowment, 
after  the  fire.  And  they  did  more  than  listen  ;  they 
shook  the  trees  on  which  the  dollars  grew,  and  as 
the  dollars  fell,  caught  them  with  nimble  fingers. 
They  fell  "thick  as  leaves  in  Yallombrosa." 

Between  June,  1913,  and  June,  19 1 5,  #1,267,230.  ^3 
was  raised  by  and  through  Wellesley  women. 

In  191 3,  a  campaign  for  a  Million  Dollar  Endow- 
ment Fund  had  been  started,  to  provide  means  for 
increasing  the  salaries  of  the  teachers.  Salaries  at 
Wellesley  were  at  that  time  lower  than  those  paid 
in  every  other  woman's  college,  but  one,  in  New 
England.  The  fund  had  been  started  with  an 
anonymous  gift  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  the  committee,  with  Candace  C.  Stimson  as  chair- 
man, planned  to  secure  the  one  million  dollars  in  two 
years.      By  March,  1914,  a  second  anonymous  gift  of 

2o\) 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

one  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been  received, 
the  General  Education  Board  had  pledged  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  conditioned  on  the  rais- 
ing of  the  whole  amount,  Wellesley  women  had 
given  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  and  there  had  been 
a  few  other  gifts  from  outsiders.  The  amount 
still  to  be  raised  on  the  Million  Dollar  Fund  at 
the  time  of  the  fire  was  five  hundred  and  seventy 
thousand  dollars. 

President  Pendleton,  in  a  letter  to  Wellesley  friends, 
printed  in  the  News  on  March  28,  1914,  ten  days 
after  the  fire,  writes  :  "Our  Campaign  for  the  Million 
Dollar  Endowment  Fund  must  not  be  dropped  .  .  . 
we  have  between  five  and  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  still  to  raise.  All  the  new  buildings 
must  be  equipped  and  maintained.  The  sum  that 
our  Alma  Mater  requires  for  immediate  needs  is 
two  million  dollars.  But  this  is  not  all.  Another 
million  will  soon  be  needed,  properly  to  house  our 
departments  of  Botany  and  Chemistry,  and  to 
provide  a  Student-Alumnae  building,  and  sufficient 
dormitories  to  house  on  the  campus  the  more  than 
five  hundred  students  now  living  in  the  village. 
We  are  facing  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the 
College.  The  future  of  our  Alma  Mater  is  in  our 
hands.  Crippled  by  this  loss,  Wellesley  cannot 
continue  to  hold  in  the  future  its  place  in  the  front 

^200 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

rank  of  colleges,  unless  the  response  is  generous  and 
immediate. 

"To  sum  up,  Alma  Mater  needs  three  million 
dollars,  two  million  of  which  must  be  raised  im- 
mediately. Shall  we  be  daunted  by  this  sum  ? 
We  are  justly  proud  of  the  courage  and  self-control 
of  those  dwellers  in  College  Hall,  both  Faculty  and 
Students.  Shall  we  be  outdone  by  them  in  facing  a 
crisis  ?  Shall  we  be  less  courageous,  less  resource- 
ful ?  The  public  press  has  described  the  fire  as  a 
triumph,  not  a  disaster.  Shall  we  continue  the 
triumph,  and  make  our  College  in  equipment  what 
it  has  proved  itself  in  spirit — The  College  Beauti- 
ful ?     We  can  and  we  must." 

The  responsk  of  the  alumnae  to  this  stirring  appeal 
was  instant  and  ardent.  The  committee  for  the 
Million  Dollar  Endowment  Fund,  with  its  valiant 
chairman,  Miss  Stimson,  shouldered  the  new  respon- 
sibility. "It  is  a  big  contract,"  they  said,  "it 
comes  at  a  season  of  business  depression,  and  the 
daughters  of  Wellesley  are  not  rich  in  this  world's 
goods.  All  this  we  know,  but  we  know,  too,  that 
the  greater  the  need  the  more  eagerly  will  love  and 
loyalty  respond." 

Then  came  the  offer  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  by  the  Rockefeller  Foundation,  if 
the  college  would   raise  an   additional   million  and  a 

2(31 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

quarter  by  January  I,  191 5.  The  intrepid  Com- 
mittee of  Alumnae  added  to  its  numbers,  merged  the 
two  funds,  and  adopted  the  new  name  of  Alumnae 
Committee  for  Restoration  and  Endowment. 

Alary  B.  Jenkins,  Wellesley,  '03,  the  committee's 
devoted  secretary,  has  described  the  plan  of  the 
campaign  in  the  News  for  March,  191 5.  As  the 
Wellesley  clubs  present  the  best  chance  of  reaching 
both  graduate  and  non-graduate  members,  a  chair- 
man for  each  club  was  appointed,  and  made  responsi- 
ble for  reaching  all  the  Wellesley  women  in  her  geo- 
graphical section,  whether  they  were  members  of 
the  club  or  not.  In  states  where  there  were  no 
clubs,  state  committees  rounded  up  the  scattered 
alumnae  and  non-graduates.  Fifty-three  clubs  ap- 
pear in  the  report,  twenty-four  state  committees, 
and  eight  foreign  countries,  — -  Canada,  Mexico, 
Porto  Rico,  South  America,  Europe,  Turkey,  India, 
and  Persia.  Every  state  in  the  Union  was  heard 
from,  and  contributions  also  came  from  clubs  in 
Japan  and  China.  The  campaign  actually  circled 
the  globe.  By  June,  1914,  Miss  Jenkins  tells  us, 
the  appeals  to  the  clubs  and  state  committees  had 
been  sent  out,  and  many  had  been  heard  from, 
but  in  order  to  make  sure  that  no  one  escaped, 
the  work  was  now  taken  up  through  committees 
from  the  thirty-six  classes,  from   1879  to   191 4.      In 

262 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

March,  191 5,  when  Miss  Jenkins's  report  was  printed 
in  the  Nczvs,  3823  of  Wellesley's  daughters  had  con- 
tributed, and  belated  contributions  were  still  coming 
in.  In  June,  191 5,  3903,  out  of  4840,  graduates  had 
responded.  Every  member  of  the  classes  of  '79,  '80, 
'81,  '84,  '92,  sent  a  contribution,  and  the  class  gift  from 
'79,  #520,161.00  was  the  largest  from  any  class  ;  that 
of  '92,  #208,453.92,  being  the  next  largest.  The 
class  gifts  include  not  only  direct  contributions  from 
alumnae,  and  from  social  members  who  did  not 
graduate  with  the  class,  but  gifts  which  alumnae  and 
former  students  have  secured  from  interested  friends. 
Of  the  remaining  classes,  five  show  a  contributing 
list  of  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  the  members; 
eleven  show  between  eight}-  and  ninety  per  cent; 
and  fifteen  between  seventy  and  eighty  per  cent. 
Besides  the  alumna;,  11 19  non-graduates  had  con- 
tributed. Xone  of  Wellesley's  daughters  have  been 
more  loyal  and  more  helpful  than  the  non-graduates. 
An  analysis  of  the  amount,  #1,267,230.53,  given 
by  and  through  Welleslcy  women  between  June, 
1913,  and  June,  191  5,  shows  four  gifts  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  and  over,  all  of  which  came  through 
Welleslcy  women,  thirty  gifts  of  from  two  thousand 
dollars  to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  three  quarters 
of  which  came  from  Welleslcy  women,  and  many 
gifts    of    less    than    two    thousand    dollars,    "only    a 

263 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

negligible  quantity  of  which  came  from  any  one  but 
alumnae  and  former  students." 

Throughout  the  nine  months  of  the  campaign, 
the  Alumnae  Committee  and  the  trustees  were 
working  in  close  touch  with  each  other.  Doctor 
George  Herbert  Palmer,  Professor  Emeritus  of 
Philosophy  at  Harvard,  was  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  from  the  trustees,  and  he  describes  him- 
self as  chaperoned  by  alumnae  at  every  point  of  the 
tour  which  he  so  successfully  undertook  in  order  to 
interview  possible  contributors.  To  him,  to  Bishop 
Lawrence,  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
and  to  Mr.  Lewis  Kennedy  Morse,  the  treasurer,  the 
college  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  it  can  never 
repay.  No  knight  of  old  ever  succored  distressed 
damsel  more  valiantly,  more  selflessly,  than  these 
three  twentieth-century  gentlemen  succored  and 
served  the  beggar  maid,  Wellesley,  in  the  cause  of 
higher  education.  Through  the  activities  of  the 
trustees  were  secured  the  provisional  gifts  of  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  from  the  Rocke- 
feller Foundation,  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
from  the  General  Education  Board,  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie's  #95,446.27,  to  be  applied  to  the  extension 
of  the  library,  and  gifts  from  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  Mrs. 
David  P.  Kimball,  and  many  others.  Mrs.  Lilian 
Horsford  Farlow,  a  trustee,  and  the  daughter  of  Prof. 

264 


THE  LOYAL   ALUMNAE 

Eben  N.  Horsford,  to  whom  Wcllcsley  is  already 
deeply  indebted,  gave  ten  thousand  dollars  toward 
the  Fire  Fund;  and  through  Mrs.  Louise  McCoy 
North,  trustee  and  alumna,  an  unknown  benefactor 
has  given  the  new  building  which  stands  on  the  hill 
above  the  lake.  Because  of  the  modesty  of  donors, 
it  has  been  impossible  to  make  public  a  complete 
list  of  the  gifts. 

From  the  four  undergraduate  classes,  191 5,  1916, 
1917,  1918,  and  from  general  undergraduate  gifts 
and  activities,  came  $60,572.04,  raised  in  all  sorts  of 
ways,  —  from  the  presentation  of  "Beau  Brummel" 
before  a  Boston  audience,  to  the  polishing  of  shoes 
at  ten  cents  a  shine.  One  1917  girl  earned  ten  dollars 
during  the  summer  vacation  by  laughing  at  all  her 
father's  jokes,  whether  old  or  new,  during  that 
period  of  recreation.  Other  enterprising  sophomores 
"swatted"  flies  at  the  rate  of  one  cent  for  two, 
darned  stockings  for  five  cents  a  hole,  shampooed, 
mended,  raked  leaves.  Members  of  the  class  of 
1916  sold  lead  pencils  and  jelly,  scrubbed  floors, 
baked  angel  cake,  counted  knot  holes  in  the  roof  of 
a  summer  camp.  Besides  "Beau  Brummel",  191 5 
gave  dancing  lessons  and  sold  vacuum  cleaners. 
One  student  who  was  living  in  College  Hall  at  the 
time  of  the  fire  is  said  to  have  made  ten  dollars  by 
charging  ten  cents  for  every  time  that  she  told  of  her 

t()5 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

escape  from  the  building.  The  class  of  191 8,  enter- 
ing as  freshmen  in  September,  after  the  fire,  raised 
$5,540.60  for  the  fund  when  they  had  been  organized 
only  a  few  weeks. 

The  methods  of  the  alumnae  were  no  less  varied 
and  amusing.  The  Southern  California  Club  started 
a  College  Hall  Fund,  and  notices  were  sent  out  all 
over  the  country  requesting  every  alumna  to  give  a 
dollar  for  every  year  that  she  had  lived  in  College 
Hall.  Seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  came  in. 
There  were  the  5  dansants,  ?nusicales,  concerts,  of 
which  the  Sousa  concert  in  Boston  was  the  most 
important,  operettas,  masques,  garden  parties,  cos- 
tume parties,  salad  demonstrations,  candy  sales, 
bridge  parties  ;  a  moving-picture  film  of  Wellesley 
went  the  rounds  of  many  clubs,  from  city  to  city, 
through  New  England  and  the  Middle  West.  An 
alumna  of  the  class  of  1896  "took  in"  $949.20  for 
subscriptions  to  magazines,  with  a  profit  of  $175.75 
for  the  fund.  She  comments  on  Wellesley  taste 
in  magazines  by  revealing  the  fact  that  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  "  received  by  far  the  largest  number  of  sub- 
scriptions." One  girl  in  Colorado  baked  bread, 
"but  forsook  it  to  give  dancing  lessons,  as  paying 
even  better!"  In  Xew  York,  Chicago,  and  other 
cities,  the  tickets  for  theatrical  performances  were 
bought   up   and   sold   again   at   advanced  prices.     A 

266 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNA 

book  of  Wellesley  recipes  was  compiled  and  sold. 
An  alumna  of  '92  made  a  charming  etching  of  College 
Hall  and  sold  it  on  a  post  card ;  another,  also  of  '92, 
wrote  and  sold  a  poem  of  lament  on  the  loss  of  the 
dear  old  building.  The  Cincinnati  Wellesley  Club 
held  a  Wellesley  market  for  three  Saturdays  in  May, 
1914,  and  netted  somewhat  over  seventy-five  dollars 
a  day  for  the  three  days.  One  Wellesley  club 
charged  ten  cents  for  the  privilege  of  shaking  hands 
with  its  "fire-heroine." 

On  Easter  Monday,  1914,  when  the  college  had 
just  come  back  to  work,  after  the  fire,  the  "Freeman 
Fowls"  arranged  an  egg  hunt,  with  egg-shaped  tick- 
ets at  ten  cents,  for  the  fund.  The  students  from 
Freeman  Cottage,  dressed  as  roosters,  very  scarlet 
as  to  topknot  and  wattles,  very  feather  dustery  as 
to  tail,  waylaid  the  unwary  on  campus  paths  and 
lured  them  to  buy  these  tickets  and  to  hunt  for  the 
hundreds  of  brightly  colored  eggs  which  these  com- 
mercially canny  fowls  had  hidden  on  the  Art  Build- 
ing Hill.  After  the  hunt  was  successfully  over,  the 
hunters  came  down  to  the  front  oi  the  new,  very 
new,  administration  building,  already  called  the 
Wellesley  Hencoop,  where  the}"  were  greeted  by  the 
ghosts  and  wraiths  and  other  astral  presentments  of 
the  vanished  statues  ol  College  Hall,  and  where  the 
roosters   burst   into  an   antiphonal  chant: 

5(57 


THE   STORY   OF   WELLESLEY 

"Come  see  the  Wellesley  Chicken-coop,  the 

Chicken-coop,  the  Chicken-coop. 
Come  see  the  Wellesley  Chicken-coop, 

(It  isn't  far  from  Chapel ! ) 
Come  get  your  tickets  for  a  roost,  and  give 

Your  chicken-hearts  a  boost, 
Come  see  our  Wellesley  Chicken-roost, 

(It  isn't  far  from  Chapel ! ) 

"Just  see  our  brand  new  Collegette,  it's 

College  yet,  it's  College  yet, 
With  sixty-six  new  rooms  to  let, 

(They're  practicing  in  Billings). 
The  Collegette  is  very  tall, 

It  isn't  far  from  Music  Hall, 
Our  neighbors  can't  be  heard  at  all  - 

(They  learn  to  sing  at  Billings). 

"Oh,  statues  dear  from  College  Hall,  from 

College  Hall,  from  College  Hall, 
Don't  hesitate  to  come  and  call 

On  Hen-House  day  at  Wellesley. 
Niobe  sad,  and  Harriet,  and  Polly  Hym  and  Dian's  pet 

On  Hen-House  day,  —  on  Hen-House  day, 
0  !     Hen-House  day  at  Wellesley. 

Come  walk  right  through  the  big  front  door, 

Each  hour  we  love  you  more  and  more, 

There's  fire-escapes  from  every  floor 

Of  the  new  Hen-house  at  Wellesley." 

Having  thus  formally  adopted  the  new  building, 
whose  windows  and  doors  were  already  wreathed  in 
vines  and  crimson   (paper)   roses  which  had  sprung 

268 


THE  LOYAL  ALUMNA 

up  and  blossomed  over  night,  the  college  now  has- 
tened to  the  top  of  College  Hall  Hill,  whence,  at  the 
crowing  of  Chanticleer,  the  egg-rolling  began.  The 
Nest  Egg  for  the  fund,  achieved  by  these  enterprising 
"Freeman  Fowls",  was  about  fifty-two  dollars. 

Far  off  in  Honolulu  there  were  "College  Capers" 
in  which  eight  VVellesley  alumnae,  helped  by  gradu- 
ates of  Harvard,  Cornell,  Bryn  Mawr,  and  other 
colleges,  earned  three  hundred  dollars. 

The  News  has  published  a  number  of  letters  whose 
simple  revelation  of  feeling  witnesses  to  the  loyalty 
and    love   of   the    Wellcsley    alumnae.     One    writes : 

"A  month  ago,  because  of  obligations  and  a  very 
small  salary,  I  thought  I  could  give  nothing  to  the 
Endowment  Plan.  By  Saturday  morning  (after 
the  fire)  I  had  decided  I  must  give  a  dollar  a  month. 
By  night  I  had  received  a  slight  increase  in  salary, 
therefore  I  shall  send  two  dollars  a  month  as  long  as 
I  am  able.  I  wish  it  were  millions,  my  admiration 
and  sympathy  are  so  unbounded." 

Another  says  :  "Perhaps  you  may  know  that  when 
I  was  a  Senior  I  received  a  scholarship  of  (I  think) 
$350.  It  has  long  been  my  wish  and  dream  to  return 
that  money  with  large  interest,  in  return  for  all  I 
received  from  my  Alma  Mater,  and  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  success  I  have  since  had  in  my  work 
because  of  her.      I  have  never  been  able  to  lay  aside 

269 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

the  sum  I  had  wished  to  give,  but  now  that  the  need 
has  come  I  can  wait  no  longer,  I  am  therefore  sending 
you  my  check  for  $500,  hoping  that  even  this  sum, 
so  small  in  the  face  of  the  immense  loss,  may  aid  a 
little  because  it  comes  at  the  right  moment.  It 
goes  with  the  wish  that  it  were  many,  many  times 
the  amount,  and  with  the  sincerest  acknowledgment 
of  my  indebtedness  to  Wellesley." 

From  China  came  the  message  :  "In  an  indefinite 
way  I  had  intended  to  send  five  or  ten  dollars  some 
time  this  year  (to  the  Endowment  Fund),  but  the 
loss  of  College  Hall  makes  me  realize  afresh  what 
Wellesley  has  meant  to  me,  and  I  want  to  give  till  I 
feel  the  pinch.  I  am  writing  (the  treasurer  of  the 
Mission  Board)  to  send  you  five  dollars  a  month  for 
ten  months." 

From  nearer  home  :  "My  sister  and  I  intend  to  go 
without  spring  suits  this  year  in  order  to  give  twenty- 
five  dollars  each  toward  the  fund  ;  this  surely  will  not 
be  sacrifice,  but  a  great  privilege.  Then  we  intend 
to  add  more  each  time  we  receive  our  salary.  .  .  . 
I  cannot  say  that  I  was  so  brave  as  the  girls  at  the 
college,  who  did  not  shed  a  tear  as  College  Hall 
burned  —  I  could  not  speak,  my  voice  was  so  choked 
with  tears,  and  that  night  I  went  supperless  to  bed. 
But  though  it  seems  impossible  to  believe  that  Col- 
lege Hall  is  a  thing  of  the  past,  yet  one  cannot  but 

270 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNiE 

feel  that  from  this  so  great  calamity  great  good  will 
come  —  a  broader,  higher  spirit  will  be  manifested ; 
we  shall  cease  to  think  in  classes,  but  all  unite  in 
great  loving  thought  for  the  good  and  the  upbuilding 
—  in  more  senses  than  one  —  of  our  Alma  Mater." 

And  the  messages  and  money  from  friends  of  the 
college  were  no  less  touching.  The  children  of  the 
Wellesley  Kindergarten,  which  is  connected  with  the 
Department  of  Education  in  the  college,  held  a  sale 
of  their  own  little  handicrafts  and  made  fifty  dollars 
for  the  fund. 

One  who  signed  himself,  "Very  respectfully,  A 
Working  Man,"  wrote  :  "The  results  of  your  college's 
work  show  that  it  is  of  the  best.  The  Student 
Government  is  one  of  the  finest  things  in  American 
education.  The  spirit  shown  at  the  fire  and  since  is 
superb." 

Another  man,  who  wished  that  he  "had  a  daughter 
to  go  to  Wellesley,  the  college  of  high  ideals,"  said, 
"  I  should  be  ashamed  even  to  ride  by  in  the  train 
without  contributing  this  mite  to  your  Rebuilding 
Fund." 

A  woman  in  Tasmania  sent  a  dollar,  "for  you 
are  setting  a  great  ideal  for  the  broad  education 
of  women.  .  .  .  We  (in  Australia)  have  much  to 
thank  the  higher  democratic  education  of  America 
for." 

^>71 


THE   STORY  OF  WELLESLEY 

From  many  little  children  money  came :  from 
little  girls  who  hoped  to  come  to  Wellesley  some 
day,  and  from  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Wellesley 
students. 

The  business  men  of  Wellesley  town  subscribed 
generously.  Many  men  as  well  as  women  have 
expressed  their  admiration  of  the  college  in  a  tangible 
way. 

And  from  Vassar,  Smith,  Bryn  Mawr,  Mt. 
Holyoke,  RadclifFe,  Barnard,  Wells,  Simmons,  and 
Sweet  Briar,  contributions  came  pouring  in  un- 
solicited. Harvard,  Yale,  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
Tufts,  and  others  had  already  loaned  equipment  and 
material  for  the  impoverished  laboratories,  and 
direct  contributions  to  the  fund  came  from  the 
University  of  Idaho,  the  Musical  Clubs  of  Dart- 
mouth and  the  Institute  of  Technology  ;  from  Hobart 
College,  in  cooperation  with  Wellesley  alumnae,  in 
Geneva,  New  York ;  from  the  Emerson  College  of 
Oratory,  the  College  Club  of  Tucson,  Arizona,  the 
Boston  and  Connecticut  branches  of  the  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumnse,  the  Fitchburg  Smith  College 
Club,  and  the  Cornell  Woman's  Club  of  New  York 
City.  To  Smith  College,  which  had  so  lately  raised 
its  million,  Wellesley  was  also  indebted  for  helpful 
suggestions   in   planning  the   campaign. 

272 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNiE 

When  the  great  war  broke  out  in  August,  1914, 
wise  unbelievers  shook  their  heads  and  commiser- 
ated VVellesley  ;  but  the  dauntless  Chairman  of  the 
Alumnx'  Restoration  and  Endowment  Committee 
continued  to  press  on  with  her  campaign  —  to  draw 
dilator}'  clubs  into  line,  to  prod  sluggish  classes  into 
activity,  to  remind  individuals  of  their  opportunity. 

The  pledges  for  the  last  forty  thousand  dollars 
of  the  fund  came  snowing  in  during  Christmas  week, 
and  eleven  o'clock  of  the  evening  of  December  31, 
1914,  found  Miss  Stimson's  committee  in  New  York 
counting  at  top  speed  the  sheaves  of  checks  and 
pledges  which  had  been  arriving  all  day.  The 
remarkable  thing  about  the  campaign  was  the  great 
number  of  small  amounts  which  came  in,  and  the 
number  of  alumnae  —  not  the  wealthy  ones  —  who 
doubled  their  pledges  at  the  last  minute.  It  was  the 
one  dollar  and  the  five-dollar  pledges  which  really 
saved  the  day  and  made  it  possible  for  the  college  to 
secure  the  large  conditional  gifts.  On  the  morning 
of  January  1,  191 5,  the  amount  was  complete. 

IV 

With  191 5,  Wellesley  enters  upon  the  second  phase 
of  her  history,  but  the  early,  formative  years  will 
always  shine  through  the  tire,  a  memory  and  an 
inspiration.      Nothing    that    was    vital    perished    in 

-27* 


THE   STORY   OF  WELLESLEY 

those  flames.  Yet  already  the  Wellesley  that  looks 
back  upon  her  old  self  is  a  different  Wellesley.  All 
her  repressed  desires,  spiritual,  intellectual,  aes- 
thetic, are  suddenly  set  free.  Her  lovers  and  her 
daughters  feel  the  very  campus  kindle  and  quicken 
beneath  their  feet  to  new  responsibilities. 

"The  New  Wellesley!" 

No  one  knows  what  that  shall  be,  but  the  words 
are  vision-filled :  prophetic  of  an  ordered  beauty 
of  architecture,  a  harmony  of  taste,  that  the  old 
Wellesley,  on  the  far  side  of  the  fire,  strove  after 
but  never  knew ;  prophetic  of  a  pinnacled  and  as- 
piring scholarship  whose  solid  foundations  were 
laid  forty  years  deep  in  Christian  trust  and  patience; 
prophetic  of  a  questing  spirit  freed  from  the  old 
reproach  of  provincialism ;  of  a  ministering  spirit 
in  which  the  virtue  of  true  courtesy  is  fulfilled. 

The  end  of  her  first  half  century  will  see  the 
campus  flowering  with  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
the  new  Wellesley  ;  and  even  as  the  old  fire-hallowed 
bricks  have  made  beautiful  the  new  walls,  so  the 
beauty  of  the  old  dreams  shall  shine  in  the  new  vision. 

"Pageant  of  fretted  roofs  that  cluster  * 

On  hill  and  knoll  in  the  branches  green, 
Ye  are  but  shadows,  and  not  the  luster, 
Garment,  ye,  of  a  grace  unseen. 

*  Katharine  Lee  Bates :  from  a  poem,  "  The  College  Beautiful,"  1886. 

274 


THE   LOYAL  ALUMNAE 

"All  our  life  is  confused  with  fable, 

Ever  the  fact  as  the  phantasy  seems  : 
Yet  the  world  of  spirit  lies  sure  and  stable, 
I'ndcr  the  shows  of  the  world  of  dreams. 

"Not  an  idle  and  false  derision 

The  rocks  that  crumble,  the  stars  that  fail ; 
Meaning  masketh  within  the  vision, 
Shaping  the  folds  of  the  woven  veil." 


to 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Edward,  231. 

Academic  Council,  The,  66,  78, 
86,  90,  91,  93,  121,  125,  133, 
181,  185,  247,  252. 

Addams,  Jane,  149,  190. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  152. 

Agora  Society,  The,  79,  211. 

Alexandra  Garden,  The,  107. 

Alice  Freeman  Palmer  Fel- 
lowship, The,  134,  135. 

Allen,  Frederick  D.,  81,  82. 

Alpha  Kappa  Chi  Society,  The, 
79,  210,  211. 

Alumna?  Association,  The,  84, 
119,  199,  242,  243,  245-248, 
252,  254,^264. 

American  College  for  Girls  at 
Constantinople,  The,  149. 

American  Psychological  Asso- 
ciation, The,  143. 

American  School  of  Classical 
Studies  at  Athens,  The,  129, 

135; 
American    School    of  Classical 

Studies  at  Rome,  The,  1 3 5. 
Ames,  Oliver,  72. 
Amherst  College,   103,   1 55. 
Angell,   James    Burnll,    59-61, 

65. 
Antioch  College,  87. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  195,  235. 
Athletic  Association,  The,  218- 

220. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  The,  239, 
266. 


Balch,  Emily  Greene,  145,  146, 
149. 

Barker,  Emilie  Jones,  155. 

Barn,  The,  211,  214,  229. 

Barnard  College,  272. 

Barn  Swallows  Society,  The, 
169,  214. 

Batchelder,  Josephine  H.,  234. 

Bates,  Katharine  Lee,  14,  53, 
138,  149,  162,  166,  192,  257, 
258,  274. 

Beebe  Hall,  106. 

Beethoven  Society,  The,  209. 

Bell,  Joseph,  10. 

Berlin,  University  of,  153. 

Billings  Hall,  54,  102,  106, 
228,  268. 

Billings,  Hammatt,  28. 

Boat  House,  The,  80. 

Bologna,  University  of,  129. 

Boston  Normal  School  of  Gym- 
nastics, The,  106. 

Bowdoin  College,  24. 

Bradford  Academy,  72. 

Breckenndge,    Sophonisba    P., 

73- 
Brown,     Alice     \  an     \  echten, 

136,  137,  253. 
Brown    University,     101,     III, 

1 14,  126. 
Bryn  Mawr  College,  3,  50,  1 1 1, 

130,  131,  134,  168,  181,  248, 

269,  272. 
Burrell,  Ellen  L.,  79,  180. 
Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  20. 


\i  t 


INDEX 


Calkins,  Mary  Whiton,  78, 
in,  112,  129,  143,  149,  150, 
160,  197,  224. 

Cambridge,  University  of 
(England),  135. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  264. 

Case,  Mary  S.,  142,  172,  179, 
224. 

Cazenove,  Paulina,  22. 

Cazenove  Hall,  106. 

Chandler,  Eva,  186. 

Chandler,  Gertrude,  186. 

Chapel,  The  College,  17,  41, 
42,  54,  80,  96,  98,  101,  102, 
in,  179,  226. 

Chapin,  Angie  Clara,  127,  186. 

Chapman,  Maria  Weston,  213. 

Chemistry  Building,  98,  228. 

Chicago,  University  of,  72,  135. 

Choate,  Rufus,  10. 

Christian  Association  of  Wel- 
lesley  College,  The,  68, 88, 96, 
171,  185-187,  190,  191,  196. 

Claflin,  William  B.,  27. 

Clark  University,  238. 

Clarke,  William,  195. 

Clubs  (Department  and  in- 
formal), 213. 

Colin,  Henriette  Louise 
Therese,  99,  163. 

College  Hall,  6,  8,  15,  28,  88, 
94,  101,  120,  156,  180-182, 
202,  207,  212,  222,  224,  225, 
227,  229,  231,  233,  252,  259, 
261,  265-270. 

College  Settlements  Associa- 
tion,   The,     143,     150,     186, 

^  I9°-I93- 
Columbia  University,  72,   143, 

23S. 


Coman,    Katharine,    104,    105, 

143,  146,  166,  186,  195. 
Conant,  Charlotte  Howard,  17, 

18,  23,  24,  26,  36. 
Consumers'  League,  The,  143, 

186,  256. 
Converse,  Elisha  S.,  69,  97. 
Converse,  Florence,  257. 
Conyngton,  Mary  K.,  195,  257. 
Cook,  Helen  Dodd,  135. 
Cornell    University,    87,    238, 

265,  272. 
Courant  ,The,  79,  176,  179,  191, 

I94v 
Cox,  Kenyon,  84. 
Crane,  Winthrop  Murray,  72. 
Crofut,  Florence  S.  Marcy,  96, 

244. 
Cummings,  Clara  Eaton,  154. 
Currier,  Mary  Adams,  154. 

Dakota,  University  of,  135. 
Dana  Hall,  23,  68. 
Dartmouth  College,  241,  249, 

253,  272. 
Davis,   Olive,    222,    223,    231- 

233- 

Delta  Upsilon  (Harvard),  212. 

Denio,  Elizabeth  H.,  156. 

Denison  College,  43. 

Denison  House,  150,  192,  256. 

Departments :  Archaeology, 
126;  Art,  90,  126,  136,  137; 
Astronomy,  126,  147;  Bible, 
67,  78,  96,  122,  126,  127,  254; 
Biology,  69;  Botany,  69, 
147,  152,  154;  Chemistry, 
69,  126,  127,  147;  Eco- 
nomics, 104,  105,  143-146, 
166,  186;  Education,  5,  126; 


278 


INDEX 


Departments  —  contin  ued. 
English  Composition,  78, 
127,  160;  English  Litera- 
ture, 127,  138,  160,  162,  164; 
French,  5,  99,  126,  163; 
Geography  and  Geology, 
147,  154,  228,  230;  German, 
138,  130-142,  155,  137,  179; 
Greek,  86,  126,  160,  164, 
186;  History,  63,  104,  130; 
Hygiene  and  Physical  Ed- 
ucation, 106,  132,  147,  219; 
Italian,  126;  Latin,  84,  126, 
160;  Mathematics,  78,  79, 
83,  114,  113,  126,  127,  186; 
Music,  3,  90,  123,  126,  137; 
Philosophy  and  Psychology, 
78,  129,  138,  142,  134,  186, 
228;  Physics,  36,  69,  126, 
127,  I2<;,  147,  228,  230; 
Reading  and  Speaking,  126, 
134;  Spanish,  126;  Zoology, 
147,  228,  230. 

Dewey,  John,  238. 

Domestic  Work,  i},  41,  47, 
93-95,   170.  178,  180,  223. 

Duckett,  Dominick,  95. 

Durant,  Henry  Fowle,  6-49, 
5i_53'  55'  56.  65,  66,  80, 
87,  91-95-  96,  97,  191-  -03, 
203-207. 

Durant,   Henry   Fowle,   Jr.,   9, 

Durant,  Pauline  Adeline,  6,  7, 
22,  26-28,  31,  53-55,  7 1-  96, 
156,  iss.  200. 

Durant,  Pauline  Cazenove,  22. 

Durant  Scholarship,    The.  108. 


r.astman,     uli 


:■  A.,   ^. 


Eastman,  Sarah  P.,  33,  34. 

Edwards,  Katharine  M.,  160. 

Eliot,  John,  8. 

Eliot  Cottage,  71,  191. 

Elmira  College,  59. 

Emerson    College   of  Oratory, 

272. 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  19. 
Endowment  Fund,  The,  120. 
Equal    Suffrage    League,    The, 

186. 
Evans,      Florence     Wilkinson, 
^  210,  257. 
Everett,  Edward,  12. 

Farlow,  Lilian  Horsford,  264. 
larnsworth,  Isaac  D.,  80. 
Farnsworth   Art    Building,   80, 

228,  267. 
Ferguson,    Margaret    C,    147, 

153. 
Field  Day,  218-220. 
Fisher,  Elizabeth  F.,  147. 
Fiske,  Mrs.  Joseph  N.,  97. 
Fiske  Cottage,  97. 
Float  Day,  216,  217,  220. 
Fowle,  John,  11. 
Freeman,   Elizabeth  Josephine 

(Higley),  58. 
Freeman,  Janus  \\  arren,  58. 
Freeman,  Lucy  Jane,  258. 
Freeman  Cottage,  71,  267. 
French,  Clara,  i<>o. 

Gamble,  Eleanor  A.  McC,  142, 

2  58. 
General  Education  Hoard,  I  he, 

Gerry,      Margarita     Spalding, 

257. 


279 


INDEX 


Goodenovv,  E.  A.,  69. 
Goodloe,  Abbie  Carter,  257. 
Gottingen,  University  of,  135. 
Goucher  University,  135. 
Gould,  Helen  Day,  106. 
Gould,  Helen  Miller,  106. 
Graduate    Council,    The,    119, 

244,  245,  247-253. 
Gray,  Asa,  152. 
Greenhalge,  Frederic  Thomas, 

72. 
Groves,  William  H.,  54. 
Guild,  Marian  Pelton,  56,  66, 

101,  105,  242. 
Gymnasium,  The,  106,  228. 

Hadley,  Arthur  Twining,  241. 
Hallowell,   Susan   Maria,    151, 

153- 

Hamilton,  Clarence  G.,  137. 
Hardy,  Alpheus  H.,  97. 
Harris,  William  T.,  82. 
Hart,  Sophie  de  Chantal,  160. 
Harvard  University,  19,  20,  36, 

72,   78,    103,    126,    131,    138, 

143,  150,  173,  238,  241,  264, 

269,  272. 
Haskell,  Mary  E.,  214. 
Hawes,  Adeline  B.,  160. 
Hazard,  Caroline,  50,  69,  100- 

iii,  114,  115,  127,  231. 
Hazard,  Margaret  (Rood),  100. 
Hazard,  Rowland,  100. 
Hazard,  Rowland  G.,  100. 
Hazard,  Thomas,  100. 
Hibbard,  Laura  A.,  135,  258. 
Hobart  College,  272. 
Hodgkins,     Louise     Manning, 

35>  217- 
Homans,  Amy  Morris,  106, 147. 


Honor  Scholarships,  The,  170. 
Horsford,  Eben  N.,  16,  54,  69, 

70,  265. 
Horton,    Mary   Elizabeth,    14, 

34>  46,  153- 
Houghton,  Clement  S.,  98. 
Houghton,  Elizabeth  G.,  98. 
Houghton,  William  S.,  97,  98. 
Howard,   Ada   L.,   32,   42,   43, 

51-57,  79,  80. 
Howard,  Adaline  Cowden,  52. 
Howard,  William  Hawkins,  52. 
Hubbard,  Marion,  230. 
Hughes,  Frances  L.,  182. 
Hull  House,  190. 
Huntington,  Cornelia  S.,  187. 
Hunnewell,  H.  H.,  71,  97,  106, 

203,  204. 
Hurll,  Estelle  M.,  257. 

Idaho,  University  of,  272. 
International       Institute       in 

Spain,  The,  72,  149,  190. 
Irvine,  Charles  James,  87. 
Irvine,     Julia    Josephine,    69, 

85-100,  105,  127,  224. 

Jackson,  Florence,  251. 
Jackson,  John  Adams,  15. 
Jackson,  Margaret,  107. 
James,  William,  143. 
Jenkins,  Mary  B.,  262,  263. 
Jewett,  Sophie,   138,   149,   161, 

163. 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  135, 


Kendall,     Elizabeth     Kimball, 

„  I5°\ 
Kendrick,  Eliza  Hall,  254. 


280 


INDEX 


Kimball,  Clara  Bertram  (Mrs. 

David  I\),  1 06,  134,  264. 
Kimball,  Hannah  Parker,  107. 
Kimball,  M.  Day,  107. 
Kingsley,  Florence  Morse,  38- 

43,  204-207. 
Kirk,  Kdward  \.,  27. 
Knox,  James,  58. 
Knox  College,  52. 

Lawrence,  William,  264. 
Leavens,  Mary  A.,  181,  182. 
Legenda,   The,  53,  79,  84,   178, 

200. 
Library,    The  College,   36,   40, 

47,  54,  69-71-  95-  106,  228. 
Lord,  Frances  Fllen,  45,  84. 
Lord,  Katharine,  181. 
Lowes-Dickinson,  C,  195. 
Lyon,  Mary,  2. 

Macdougall,  Hamilton  C,  102, 

137- 

Maddocks,  Caroline,  257. 

Magee,  Helene  Buhlert,  200, 
250. 

Marks,  Jeannette,  258. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  212,  213. 

Massachusetts  Board  of  Edu- 
cation,  1  he,  72. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,    The,   129,    131, 

154;  -!-■ 
Massir,  Fannie,  4. 
Mathews,  May,  1S2. 
McClellan,    Elizabeth,  210. 
McKibben,     Mary     Elizabeth 

Stilwt.ll,  4:  -4S,  93. 
McKibben,  Ruth  Eleanor,  43. 
McKinnon,  Flora  Isabel,  258. 


Michigan,  University  of,  3,  59, 

64,    67,    72,    in,    127,    142, 

186. 
Microscopical     Society,     The, 

209. 
Mills,  Margaret  C,  182. 
Minns,    Thomas,  102. 
Montague,   Annie  Sybil,    164- 

166. 
Montgomery,     Caroline     Wil- 
liamson, 84. 
Morgan,  Anne  Eugenia,  154. 
Morse,    Lewis    Kennedy,    252, 

264. 
Mount  Holyoke  College,  3,  27, 

52,  57,  59,67,  114,  130,  168, 

22 1,  272. 
Miiller,  Margarethe,   139,  141, 

155,  i58'  160. 
Munich,  University  of,  135. 
Murray,  H.  G.,  244. 
Music   Hall,    I  he  College,   56, 

235,  268. 

X  at  ion,  Tin-,  1 12. 

New         Hampshire  State 

Teachers  Association,    139. 
Newman,  Anna  S.,  155. 
Newnham  College,  1 1 4. 
Nichols,  Ernest  Fox,  253. 
Niles,  William  IE,  147,  154. 
Norfolk    Agricultural    Society, 

The,  25. 
North,  Louise  McCoy,  1 55,  265. 
Norumbega    Cottage,    16,    68, 

69,  155. 
Nines,  Alfred,  2  12. 

Oberlin,    University   of,    3,67, 
81,  82,  84. 


^2S1 


INDEX 


Observatory,  The,  88,  98,  103, 

106,  228. 
Observatory  House,  The,  106. 
Otis,  James,  23. 
Oxford  College  (Ohio),  52. 
Oxford,  University  of,  129. 

Palmer,    Alice    Freeman,     51, 

57-74>    76-78,    80,    81,    85, 

90,  121,  140,   155,  156,  177, 

186. 
Palmer,    George    Herbert,    51,   \ 

58,  60,  66,  71,  155,  264. 
Paris,  University  of,  129,  135,   I 

163. 
Patrick,  Mary  Mills,  149. 
Pegan,  8,  9. 
Pendleton,    Ellen    Fitz,    7,    50, 

82,    99,    105,    109,    111-120, 

127,  181,  225,  227-229,  252, 

260. 
Pendleton,    Enoch     Burrowes, 

114. 
Pendleton," Mary  Ette  (Chap- 
man), 114. 
Pennsylvania,    Lniversity    of, 

272. 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,   in, 

221. 
Phi    Sigma    Society,    79,    209, 

210. 
Pickering,     Edward     Charles, 

103. 
Pierce,  Caroline  Frances,  163. 
Plimpton  Collection,  The,  71, 

107. 
Plimpton,       Frances       Taylor 

Pearsons,  107. 
Plimpton,  George  A.,  107. 
Pomeroy  Hall,   107. 


Pratt  Institute,  131. 

Prelude,  The  Welle sley,  79,  179, 

194,  197. 
President's  House,  The,  69,  106. 
Princeton  University,  238,  239, 

241,  244-246,  249. 

Radcliffe  College,  72,  272. 
Rankin,  William,  137. 
Ripley,  Samuel,  18. 
Ripley,  Mrs.  Samuel,  18-20. 
Ripon,  University  of,  135. 
Roberts,  Charlotte  F.,  214. 
Robertson,  Alice,  147,  230. 
Robinson,  Eloise,  258. 
Rockefeller   Foundation,   The, 

261,  264. 
Rothery,  Agnes  Edwards,  257. 
Royal    Geographical     Society, 

150. 

Sabbatical  Grant,  The,  69. 
Sage,  Mrs.  Russell,  264. 
Sargent,  D.  A.,  67. 
Schopperle,  Gertrude,  135,  258. 
Schurman,  Jacob  Gould,   238, 

239- 
Scudder,    Vida    Dutton,     138, 

149,  150,  160-162,  190. 
Seelye,  L.  Clark,  50. 
Shackford,    Martha    Hale,    28, 
^  94,  225,  257. 
Shafer,  Helen  Almira,   51,  69, 

73-86,  89,  90,  121,  180,  200. 
Shafer  Hall,  106. 
Shakespeare  House,  The,  98. 
Shakespeare  Society,  The,  114, 

209. 
Sherwood,  Margaret,  138,  148, 

160,  163. 


282 


INDEX 


Silent  Time,  91-93,  170,  180. 
Simmons  College,  131,  272. 
Simpson,  Michael,  56. 
Simpson  Cottage,  56,  109. 
Slater  Museum,  The,  136. 
Smith,  Harriet  Fowle,  18. 
Smith,  William,  18. 
Smith  College,  3,  50,  III,  127, 
130,  143,  168,  190,  246,  251, 

Sorbonne,  The,  163. 
Spahr,  Jean  Fine,  190. 
Speakman,  Rachel  T.,  154. 
Starr,  Ellen  Gates,  190. 
Sterling,  Harriet  Brewer,  243. 
Stetson,  Amos  W.,  80. 
Stimson,  Candace  C,  120,  2^}, 

259,  261,  273. 
Stone,  Isabelle,  13  ;. 
Stone,  Valeria  G.,  16,  55. 
Stone  Hall,  9,  55,  56,  153,  174, 

201,  228. 
Storrs,  Richard  S.,  55. 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  8,  9. 
Stratton,     Margaret     E.,     89, 

127,    187. 

Student  Government  Associa- 
tion, The,  93,  10S,  109,  176, 
1  7' j,  1S0,  1 S 1 ,  184,  185,  2^  1, 
-3-.  271. 

Student  Volunteers,  The,  171. 

Students'    Aid    Society,     The, 

5  3  • 
Sweet  Briar  College,  272. 


I  au  Zeta  Epsilon  Society,  I  he, 

79,  210. 
I  eachers'  Registry,   1  he,  54. 
1  haver,  1 1 ilen  Rand,  190. 
I  nomas,  M.  Carev,  ;o. 


Thomas,  Mary  Frame  (Myers), 

86. 
Thomas,  Owen,  86. 
Thompson,  Adaline  Emerson, 

192. 
Todd,  David  P.,  103. 
Tree  Day,    114,  202,  203,  208, 

216,  231. 
Trustees,  The  Board  of,  27,  28, 

69,    72,    77-79,    90,    98-IOO, 

105,  109,  in,  115,  120,  182, 
_  185,  242,  243,  252,  264. 
Tucker,   William  Jewett,   241, 

249- 

Tuell,  Annie  Kimball,  164,  257. 
Tufts,  Edith  Souther,  222,  223. 
Tufts  College,  272. 

Union  University,  72. 

Vassar  College,  3,  28,  50,  59, 
1 11,  130,  168,  221,  248,  272. 
Vassar,  Matthew,  33. 
Visitors,   The  Board  of,  53. 
Vivian,  Roxana  H.,  149. 


Waban,  Chief,  8,  9. 

\\  aban  Cottage,  56. 

Wahan,   Lake,  9,   28,   30, 
216. 

Waite,  Alice  Vinton,  127. 

Wallas,  Graham,   195. 

Warren,  Howard  Croshv, 

Jft'llesley  C  llfge  Xr.cs,  flu 
ill,  1 19,  144,  163,  170, 
194,  196,  197,  199,  213, 
231,  244,  245,  254,  255, 
262,  26;,  269. 

Wellesley  College  Press  Bo 
The,  2co,  2  ;o. 


i"; 


239. 

»  73> 
173- 
225, 
260, 

ard, 


-2s: 


INDEX 


Wellesley      College      Scholar- 
ships, The,  108. 
Wellesley   Kindergarten,   The, 

I20,  27I. 

Wellesley  Magazine,   The,   178, 

179,  194,  196,  199,  243. 
Wells,  H.  G.,  195. 
Wells  College,  272. 
Wenckebach,   Carla,    139-141, 

155,  158,  159. 
Whitin,  Mrs.  John  C,  98,  103, 

106. 
Whiting,  Sarah  L.,  36,  54,  72, 

191,  230. 
Whitney,  Anne,  212,  213. 
Wiggin,  Mary  C,  177. 
Wilder,  Charles  T.,  98. 
Wilder  Hall,  98,  106. 


Willcox,  Mary  A.,  230. 
Willcox,  William  H.,  55. 
Wilson,  Henry,  13. 
Wisconsin,  University  of,  238. 
Women's  Trade  Union  League, 

The,  149. 
Wood,  Caroline  A.,  80. 
Wood  Cottage,  80. 
Woolley,  Mary  Emma,  180. 
Wiirzburg,  University  of,  135. 

Yale  University,  135,  238,  239, 

241,  249,  272. 
Yeats,  W.  B.,  212. 

Zeta  Alpha  Society,  The,  79, 
209,  210,  233,  234. 


284 


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